Organisational adaptations in the face of adversity? An exploration of how (re)engagement services exercise resilience in the context of Covid-19 to meet the needs of ‘NEET’ youth

The aim of this project is to understand whether, and in that case how, (re)engagement services exercise resilience in the context of Covid-19 to ensure that the needs of ‘NEET’ youth are met.

It emerges from concerns about the situation of young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (referred to as ‘NEETs’), which has increased in the wake of, but not solely from, the corona crisis.

It is also a response to initiatives implemented in municipalities all over Sweden to improve the health and facilitate the social integration of this vulnerable youth group. Services  that largely struggle in their delivery of health and social care under current conditions.

By drawing upon and approaching the concept of resilience from two perspectives – an individual and an organisational – this project will explore how ‘NEET’ youth and the services in place to support them adapt to the ongoing pandemic, and what needs and strategies arise as subsequent results.To facilitate this scope, a qualitative study will be conducted involving supplementary analyzes and syntheses of data collected through interviews with young people, staff and other municipal stakeholders in the previously awared project.

This will entail adding aspects about resilience to existing interview guides to capture individual behavioral and organisational system capacities that allow the youth and services to navigate and positively adapt to the onging crisis.

Insights from this project will increase our understanding about the implications of the pandemic for a vulnerable youth group, and about how (re)engagement services exercise resilience in the face of adversity to ensure that their needs are met.

Not only will this knowledge be useful to promote positive adaptation among ‘NEET’ youth and the services that work to support them, it may also function as a catalyst for continued research aimed at exploring the resilience capacity of social services in Sweden and beyond.