THE INVISIBLES

THE INVISIBLES is a methodological strategy for outreach-based social intervention designed to foster the inclusion of homeless youth by integrating non-formal education, technological innovation, and collaborative work among professionals from various disciplines. The strategy addresses the need to adapt intervention processes to the current reality of this demographic; it centers on the AI-INCLUSION tool, thereby expanding support options and facilitating continuous access to resources and services.

Unlike traditional intervention models, THE INVISIBLES incorporates technology as a cross-cutting element throughout the entire support pathway. The strategy is implemented via the AI-INCLUSION tool—an AI-based technological solution designed to facilitate young people’s access to information, resources, and support services while reinforcing the work of professionals. Thus, technology does not replace social intervention but complements it, expanding the scope of care, fostering ongoing communication, and promoting greater participant autonomy during the inclusion process.

Aligned with the «Transition Scale» intervention model for combating homelessness, THE INVISIBLES structures the intervention process into a pathway comprising three progressive phases that support the young person from the moment their most immediate needs are addressed through to their social and labor market inclusion.

According to FEANTSA Youth’s 2022 report «Youth Work to Make Housing First for Youth… WORK!» [1] Homelessness does not only mean sleeping on the street or living in a shelter, but it is a form of exclusion that prevents young people from enjoying their right as citizens to adequate, safe, stable and dignified housing. However, this is not to say that any young person who still lives with their family or who cannot afford to buy a home is homeless.

Homelessness appears when that choice disappears, when a young person has no control or real alternatives over where to live, depends on unstable or forced solutions or is at risk of losing their home without being able to access another. In this sense, as FEANTSA Youth points out in the aforementioned study, it is not only about not having a roof, but also about not having a home.

For example, they can be young people who sleep from sofa to sofa (known as Sofa Surfing), depending on friends or family and the seasonality, without having a stable place… or young people who reside in temporary or emergency accommodation such as shelters, hostels, reception centres…

[1] FEANTSA Youth. (2022). Youth Work to Make Housing First for Youth… WORK! Study session organised within the Youth for Democracy programme in cooperation with FEANTSA Youth & Housing First Europe Hub (13 December 2022). European Youth Centre Budapest.

According to the study published in 2022 by FEANTSA [1], young people between 18 and 29 years old represent between 20% and 30% of homeless people. These young people find themselves on the street due to a number of obstacles (to their credit they find a history of poverty, abandonment, expulsion or loss of the family). They are young people between 18 and 30 years old who have had to leave their home abruptly due to exclusion from their environment (for migratory and economic reasons, for belonging to LGTBIQ+ groups, for gender violence, abuse, for an unexpected orphanhood or for being young people who have been taken out of guardianship, among others). Despite their number, there are many more than you think, only they do not respond to the usual clichés and do not have the traditional profile of the homeless person. They are all around you, but they are simply invisible.

The group of homeless youth is numerous and diverse, but we can find:

·        De-institutionalized youth. Young people who come of age leave the social services system, in some cases without support networks, or economic resources, or housing…

·        Young people rejected by their families. They are young people who have been expelled from their homes for reasons of discrimination, intolerance, lgtbiqphobia…

·        Young migrants and refugees who have fled their countries for reasons such as conflicts, wars… They are young people who face language barriers, difficulties in accessing employment, cultural isolation.

·        Young people fleeing violence and abuse in their homes. Young women who suffer gender-based violence and who have fled their homes.

[1] FEANTSA. (2022). Youth Work to Make Housing First for Youth… WORK! European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless. https://www.feantsa.org/public/user/Resources/reports/2022/Report_-_Youth_Work_to_Make_Housing_First_for_YouthWORK.pdf