Youth House: Empowering vulnerable young people with disabilities not in education, employment, or training(NEET)

Salva Vita Foundation, Hungary: Empowers NEET youth through activities like animal-assisted therapy and job coaching. From 2018 to 2022, supported over 140 participants, with around 70 finding employment.

Salva Vita Foundation, an NGO based in Budapest, empowers NEET (i.e., youth ages 15–29 not in education, employment, or training) with a wide spectrum of activities, including transformative animal-assisted therapy, creative art therapy, and other life-skill programmes. In addition, the foundation provides job coaching and mentorship to support youth in becoming self-reliant. From 2018 to 2022 more than 140 participants were supported, with approximately 70 finding employment afterwards.

Problems Targeted

Inadequate state support leaves Hungarian NEET and disabled youth isolated from society and job opportunities.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

The Salva Vita Foundation has created non-formal educational programmes and courses that specifically address the needs of the young NEET population with disabilities. NEET youth often remain isolated, even in online spaces. The physical Youth House provides them with a place in which they can obtain a range of accommodating activities tailored to their developmental needs, and that address their long-term absence from higher education and the labour market. Activities include animal-assisted therapy and developing communication skills, cooperation, and self-awareness. Art therapy is used to increase the participants’ self-expression, interpersonal skills, and self-confidence; and sports helps to build a sense of team spirit and health awareness. Counsellors (psychologists and youth workers) help to support the participants’ emotional well-being, employing the Carl Rogers principles of therapy that underline empathetic understanding. Job coaching prepares participants for employment by building skills such as interviewing, communication, and money management. Vocational training develops practical competencies aligned to labour market needs. Overall, well over 30 per cent of all participants (70 out of 210) found employment after their stay in the Youth House, and four have become self-employed.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

The project received primary funding from the EEA & Norway Grants. Despite the closure of the Youth House in spring 2023, the Salva Vita Foundation has secured additional grants for the years 2023 to 2026. (Awardee 2024)

Pictures

salva Vita has launched an empowerment programme to help "NEETs" become self-reliant.

salva Vita has launched an empowerment programme to help "NEETs" become self-reliant.

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THE STORY OF HANNA SÁLING, PARTICIPANT OF A SALVA VITA PROGRAMME

“The result of all the work I put in was a real success story, because I got a job!”

My name is Hanna Sáling and I took part in the L.I.K.E. programme, a project of the Salva Vita Foundation, which aims to help young people with various challenges who are not working or who are studying to find a place in the world and to find a good path. We have had many lasting experiences through the programme’s colourful activities, such as animal-assisted therapy, art therapy, joint creations, discussions, excursions, work experience, and more. We formed a very good community, we made a lot of good friends and acquaintances, and we have kept in touch ever since. But wait, there’s one more thing I didn’t mention: For me, the result of all the work I put in was a real success story, because I got a job! A real dream job! I work in the home office of Alfa Rehabilitation Nonprofit Ltd. collecting company data from the Internet in Excel spreadsheets. I love it!