News : Podcast and articles on the project

What is the project about?

The placement of inmates in the labour market is particularly successful if the inmates have already been able to acquire vocational qualifications within the prisons. In addition, close supervision and support of prisoners significantly reduces the risk of recidivism. This situation is evident in all participating partner countries.

The Next Steps project aims to support precisely this situation – especially the care and accompaniment of the inmates. For this purpose, a process chain with various elements will be developed during the project period and tested by the participating European project partners.

What is the goal?

The goal is to create a support offer for participating stakeholders that enables inmates to have better access to work and to stable social structures.

The elements of the process chain are to offer contact to companies looking for qualified and motivated professionals. In addition, they should also create contact to sports clubs or public assistance offers. In cooperation with other offers of the prisons, competences such as the ability to work in a team, willingness to learn and communication skills are also to be trained for subsequent professional work.

The results developed within the project are to contribute to supporting the reintegration of former prisoners. Regional networks with institutions that share the goal of integrating inmates into work and society with the prisons and the project partners are established and maintained.

More information on the project website nextsteps.whkt.de

During the course of the project, we had the opportunity to visit a total of 5 prisons in Elba, Innsbruck, Heinsberg, Lisbon an Venice.

The substantive discussions and impressions we gathered during these excursions form an important basis for achieving our project goals.

The task of Talentbrücke in IO2 was largely to develop the educational materials. These were and are used to train staff in the prisons and the project partners in behavioural observation. The ultimate aim is to train multipliers in the prisons using this train-the-trainer concept.

In our Intellectual Output #3, the expertise gathered by Next Steps is presented in such a way that it can be put into practice. This flowchart is the centrepiece of the 14-page process chain for the reintegration of former inmates into the labour market.

Who are the partners and what is the duration?

Next Steps is a follow-up project to the successful Erasmus+ project Steps.
The project started on 1 January 2022 and will run for 30 months. The project consortium consists of members from Germany, Austria, Italy and Portugal.

Strategic partner:

JVA HEINSBERG (Heinsberg, DE)