On the completed previous projects in the period 2017-2022

The "Impact Box Youth Work" is a comprehensive collection of empirically proven and substantiated impacts of out-of-school child and youth work and was developed within the framework of four already completed projects and one ongoing project. The pilot

On the completed previous projects in the period 2017-2022

The "Impact Box Youth Work" is a comprehensive collection of empirically proven and substantiated impacts of out-of-school child and youth work and was developed within the framework of four already completed projects and one ongoing project. The pilot study was successfully completed at the end of 2017 and had the goal of conducting an extensive literature research on empirically proven effects of youth work on the one hand and recording the results of the literature research in the database "Wirkungsbox Jugendarbeit" on the other. The first follow-up project was aimed at developing a practical online tool for the redesign of the impact box, which until then had only been available in Excel format (available at www.wirkungsbox.at). This project was also successfully completed in November 2019. The second follow-up project, completed in November 2020, involved supplementing the literature review with results from studies that were mainly published after 2017 and thus not yet included in the database. The forth follow-up project fourth follow-up project was completed in November 2021 and included a participatory process with representatives of open and associative youth work as well as youth information and youth research to revise the contents of the impact box. Within the framework of this process, four workshops with the above-mentioned thematic focuses were organised.

Current status of the Impact Box Youth Work

The "Impact Box Youth Work" provides an overview of the effectiveness of out-of-school child and youth work in its different facets. Currently, the Impact Box contains a collection of 1,685 impacts of out-of-school child and youth work from a total of 243 relevant German- and English-language literature contributions.

Ongoing follow-up project

Within the framework of the present fifth follow-up project, additional possibilities for the continuation of the "Impact Box Youth Work" are being pursued, taking into account the findings and optimisation proposals from the four previous projects.

Specifically, the participatory process with practitioners and experts from the field of out-of-school youth work will be continued. Youth workers will be involved in expanding the collection of evidence of impact by inviting them to report on their own experiences in practice and thus become part of the impact box. This action offers a different perspective of out-of-school youth work activities compared to the previous literature reviews, as the collected field reports are applied and practical. In addition, the current project will also revise the content of the impact box by adapting the entries to the already participatory revised content.

These two approaches offer the possibility to realise central optimisation wishes of practitioners and experts from the field of out-of-school youth work that were elicited through the participatory process.

The project is funded by the Federal Chancellery, started in December 2021 and is expected to be completed by the end of November 2022.

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