Inspiring Quality Street Work

Background The expected outcomes of street work are seldom clearly articulated in policy documents and even more seldom being documented, followed up and assessed in a structured way. Hence, the project addressed the well-known need for a common European understanding of street work, and the subsequent need for • making clear what constitutes quality in street work • creating means to do documentation and follow up on to what degree this quality is actually achieved. Through running we wanted to: • Create a common ground for street work that in turn enables mutual learning, exchange of good practices and further common development. • Create the necessary conditions for an accurate recognition of street work from the political level, as well as from the general public. • Be able to gather the information needed in order to do knowledge-based street work and to assess and further develop street work activities, including doing knowledge-based advocacy. • Be able to define and further develop the competencies needed to do quality street work. We were also convinced that this in turn will lead to better and more efficient inclusion of young people at risk, thus preventing marginalization as well as mental health problems, drug abuse, etc. Objectives Our two primary aims were to: • Develop a set of quality indicators on street work. • Create a web-based system for documentation and follow up of street work. We also wanted to strengthen the project participants competence to formulate quality indicators in general as well as more specifically on street work, and to function as facilitators for similar processes in other organizations, thus strengthening the general quality development of youth and street work. Implementation During the project the following activities were implemented: • 1 joint staff training • 10 transnational project meetings (whereof the two last ones online and not applied for) • 2 web-based feedback questionnaires to street workers and other relevant stakeholders • 12 meetings with reference groups of street workers (three in each partner country) • 12 meetings/interviews with reference groups of young people at risk (three in each partner country) • 4 local workshops on the development of indicators and methods for follow up (one in each partner country) • 4 local feedback events after testing The Logbook Street (one in each country) • 1 mid-term feedback conference • 3 national dissemination events (Sweden, Portugal, Czechia) • 1 European dissemination event (held in Slovenia) Achievements We created: • A booklet, Inspiring Quality Street work – strengthening street work through documentation and follow up, containing chapters on street work and quality development as well as a set of quality indicators on the outcomes of street work and a set of quality indicators on work processes (how street work should be perceived by young people at risk). The booklet has 55 pages and is available in English, Czech, Portuguese, Slovenian and Swedish. • A web-based system for documentation and follow up of street work, The Logbook Street Furthermore, we strengthened the projects participants understanding on how to work with quality indicators and development, as well as their capacity to convey this knowledge to others within and outside their own organizations. Doing this we also lay the ground for future exchange and mutual learning on street work, both within the participating organizations and through future European projects.