Youths co-designing new support interventions at the Social services

Purpose and goal

Extraadult aims to fill a void in the social services range of efforts and counteract that more youhs fall between the chairs. Youths want emotional support from their Extravuxen and for this reason we have developed a solid support material consisting of various exercises and knowledge films. During the project period together with Umeå municipality we have implemented the effort, recruited and completed training for Extra adults. In the fall of 2019, the effort was granted to tre young people for the very first time, which has since then gone on and received great appreciation.

Expected results and effects

The biggest result is that Extravuxen has been granted to youths who without Extra-adult risk being without support who meet their needs. Umeå has opened its eyes to the inadequacy of social services in the range of interventions, which has led to an increased understanding of why Extra-adult is needed. In addition, the project has contributed to a change of perspective and to the questioning of old systems in the social service, where youth´s needs and wishes are not always put into focus, not only in Umeå but also in a larger perspective when several municipalities have shown interest.

Planned approach and implementation

Maskrosbarn have been responsible for the development of materials, education and recruitment packages during the project. In order to obtain the social services perspective, the various parts have been discussed and presented to the project team. Parallel to this work, views from youths have been obtained. Umeå has been responsible for implementation within municipality and has consulted Maskrosbarn if necessary. Dividing has been necessary as Umeå did not have the resources required for developing and Maskrosbarn were not able to be responsible for Umeå´s implementation.