THEMES

Thematic sections at the Contemporary Challenges of Working with At-Risk Youth international conference

1. Teaching and educating at-risk youth

The education of at-risk youth has long been a special professional challenge. In this context, we expect mainly papers from the field of education of youth who face a low level of functionality, which is the result of poor family and school integration. The youth in question is dealing with mental health issues, emotional and behavioural issues and related problems in social integration.

We expect papers related to forms of education, methods and ways of teaching and other forms of work with at-risk youth in the education system, demonstrations of different ways of using teaching aids and accommodations (classroom and/or individual lessons).

Contributions in this section can relate to all forms of public and private education. They should include special forms and methods of working with the mentioned population and various educational approaches. This also includes presentations of various publicly valid forms of project education, specialized programmes and approaches of non-governmental organizations to solving problems in the education of at-risk youth.

2. Institutional approaches to working with at-risk youth

Institutions are considered an outdated concept in modern inclusive approaches in the pedagogical profession. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that part of the population is unable to achieve the required level of functionality without them, and new principles of work and new forms of treatment are emerging within institutional treatments as well.

In this section, we expect papers dealing with the forms, approaches and organization of institutional forms of treatment (institutions, youth homes and other institutions for primary and secondary school population). Both the systemic aspect of institutional treatment and the involvement of institutions in the surroundings are important. Papers can address the following topics: how institutions work as a social and local system, how they affect the family and the individuals, what are the experiences of the population that usually uses this form of accommodation, what types of programs are known for young people with issues.

We will also discuss the effectiveness of different types of institutions, the connection of state institutions with the non-governmental and private sector and the importance of their existence and cooperation with them.

This section also includes issues related to the professional role of employees in this field, issues of integrity and autonomy and freedom of action, the issue of relations between adults and adolescents in formal settings and the educational functions of institutions and supervision in the mentioned institutions.

3. Informal and non-institutional forms of working with at-risk youth

As a modern form of working with at-risk youth, a series of non-institutional programs developed decades ago. This was the result of the problem of accessibility of young people with disabilities and their ability to participate in formalized environments. In this section, we will discuss approaches and programs that are implemented outside the institutional (individual and group) forms of treatment and are defined as professional or semi-professional programs. They may be organized as part of formal programs, private organizations or informal forms of treatment and youth movements, but include the aforementioned youth population.

In this section, we will discuss prevention and intervention programmes, as well as therapeutic and curative programs for youth. This section will also include alternative and modern forms of work, which are a novelty in the field of working with at-risk youth. We see their alternativeness and innovation in a different professional and scientific orientation as well as in implementations that are unusual for the field of treatment and work with youth.