The world of work is changing, and youth are particularly affected; their successful integration into the labour force and society is essential for the economy's growth and social cohesion, including their individual economic forecasts and well-being. Investing in youth should be a top concern of our societies; they represent both present and potential employers and employees, allowing further development of a healthy work market. Apart from all the other reasons why it is vital for a society to give youth employment the utmost attention, it is also essential for social stability, inclusion and prosperity.
Youth are particularly likely to experience unemployment, and when they do obtain employment, they are likely to face hardships such as low job control, higher psychological demands, harassment, aggressive and unhealthy behaviours, and job insecurity. All affect their work performance, mental health, and well-being, posing a continuous fear of failure, depression and intense worries. 15% of working-age young adults were estimated to have a mental condition in 2019 because of work-related issues (World Mental Health Report, 2022). Youth being at the beginning of their career, an unpleasant starting experience entering the workforce can possibly cause uncontrollable fears for their future & thus lead them to selected unemployment, making them not want to go to work because of fearing an unhealthy workplace again. Mental health and personal well-being must be investigated more deeply in youth employment encouragement. Several forms of psychologically violent behaviour are worth exploring since they seriously harm youth, considering they affect overall social relations and the quality and productivity of youth at the workplace.
Mobbing, bullying, discrimination and harassment experienced by youth in the workplace are undermined and diminished and not given appropriate attention. Youth is a huge resource in any country, and their problems must be solved first; CREW is a response to the need for youth to be trained to identify and fight these unhealthy behaviours.
CREW’s main objective is to create Safe Workplaces for Youth through Youth Work. CREW is creating a path through youth workers’ competences building to empower youth to be able to identify and fight for these aspects that make a workplace a safe place for them to thrive and flourish.
The specific objectives of CREW are:
(SO1) To determine the elements of a safe workplace for youth and to examine different forms of unhealthy behaviours that affect youth in the workplace, such as Mobbing and Bullying,
(SO2) To develop tools that Youth Workers can use to boost young people's emotional intelligence and resilience to prevent and combat unhealthy behaviours in the workplace,
(S03) To provide Youth Workers with an opportunity for continuing professional development through e-learning and training on the topic of the creation of Safe Workplaces for Youth,
(SO4) To disseminate and further exploit the project results and highlight the contribution of the Erasmus+ Programme in Youth Work,
(SO5) To apply state-of-the-art management methodologies and exploit the partnership's transnational dimension and the partners' diverse backgrounds to implement the activities and enrich the Youth sector.