Effective strategies of socio-educational intervention with adolescents in social risk situation

• Main Authors: Miguel Melendro, Ángel Luis Gonzalez Olivares, Ana Eva Rodríguez Bravo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedad Iberoamericana de Pedagogía Social 2013-04-01
• Series: Pedagogía Social: Revista Interuniversitaria
• Subjects: adolescencia; grupo de alto riesgo; educación social; intervención; investigación acción; educador.
• Online Access: http://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/PSRI/article/view/38002

<p>Although the characterization of teenagers and young population at risk of social exclusion has been thoroughly investigated, that’s not the case of the intervention strategies used. This article refers to a research performed between 2011 and 2012 which advances on the description, categorization and study of effective intervention strategies, so they can be used as an information source for good professional performance, reproducible and useful to improve the situation of teenagers at risk.</p><p>From a research-action approach, the contributions from the professionals working with this population, collected from about a hundred tests and seven discussion groups, are a direct and well-documented source of knowledge. This information is useful in order to underline the most relevant elements of this intervention, as well as the obstacles, limitations and practices that can be improved in this field of work.</p><p>Part of the results and the discussion about them are, among others, the proposals of effective intervention in conflictive familiar dynamics, the worrying and increasing violence, teenagers migratory grief and its effects of risk and marginalization, the limited and weak participation of teenagers in their own life decision making and the important educational needs of the group of people working with this population.</p><p>Furthermore, relevant strategic elements are shaped as the base of the intervention with teenagers at risk situation. Among those elements we find the flexibility to deal with uncertain situations, the link, empathy and affective proximity as necessary tools in socio-educational action, the contextualization of intervention in conflict situations and the debate about resilience and its contributions to the field of Social Pedagogy.</p>