Previous research has suggested that professional youth work settings empower socially vulnerable youngsters, strengthening their personal development and social participation. It is expected that youth work can prevent personal and social problems of youngsters, which may have longer term positive social …

This article focuses on how length of participation in professional youth work is associated with five outcome variables: prosocial skills, self-mastery, social network, civic participation (volunteering and organizing activities) and finding support from social care services. The study was designed …

Summary Self-managed shelters claim that participants who have been homeless, are better able to run a shelter than regular providers. Little research has investigated self-managed shelters. In this paper we described the experiences of participants and peer workers with empowerment processes in Je Eigen …

In Social Work research there is a strong debate on the distinctiveness and methodological quality, and how to address the dilemma of rigour and practice relevance. Given the nature of Social Work the field has developed a characteristic research culture that puts emphasis on giving voice to service …

Knowledge of how professional youth work might prevent individual and social problems in socially vulnerable youngsters is poorly developed. This article presents a conceptual framework that clarifies the implicit methodical process used by professional youth workers and focuses on what stakeholders …

Girls Work, as one of the methods used by professional youth work, focuses on helping vulnerable girls to shape their own lives (a capacity also referred to as ‘agency’). In this study, it is hypothesised that the methodical principles (i.e. the guiding principles of the methodical actions of the youth …

The central question in this study is how, for whom, and under which conditions professional youth work contributes to the personal development of socially vulnerable youngsters, the reinforcement of their social network, the enhancement of their social participation, and the timely finding of appropriate …

Participant empowerment is a foundational goal of selforganised homeless care. We aim to understand how a selforganised setting contributes to participants' empowerment. The data we analysed (56 interviews, both open and semistructured) were generated in a longitudinal participatory case study into Je …