Tailored support

No two young people are the same. One struggles with anger. Another is fit and motivated but has growing debts. A third has stopped going to school and sleeps until noon. In step 3 you turn what you mapped into tailored support (maatwerk): an approach that fits the young person’s life, pace and needs. You decide together where to focus, and, with the young person’s consent, which other professionals can help, such as a family worker, a youth worker or the neighbourhood police officer.

Three areas of resilience

For each young person, you decide where more support is needed and where less.

• Mental resilience: coping with stress, anger and setbacks; self-confidence; saying no under peer pressure.

• Physical resilience: sport, sleep, food and a daily rhythm. Sport, such as football, trains self-control as well as fitness.

• Financial resilience: understanding money, avoiding debt and resisting “easy money”. M&K’s CashSkills programme supports this area.

Why it works

Research on youth interventions shows that support works best when its intensity matches the level of risk and when it targets what actually drives behaviour (the risk-need-responsivity principles). Too much support for a low-risk young person can even backfire. Motivation also matters: goals a young person chooses are pursued longer than goals imposed on them.

What you do

• Choose one focus: start with the area where a small success is most likely. Early wins build confidence for harder goals.

• Let the young person choose: offer two or three options instead of one instruction. Choice increases ownership.

• Use their strengths: a young person who loves sport can practise anger control in training.

• Make goals concrete: use if-then plans: “If someone provokes me, then I walk away and text my coach.” Such plans make new behaviour more automatic.

• Combine group and individual work: use the coaching moment in each group session for personal goals.

• Know your limits: if more is needed than Streetwise can offer, discuss it with your programme manager and arrange a warm handover to mental health care, the neighbourhood team, addiction care or the probation service.

  
  

Watch out

One programme for everyone. Easier to organise, but it misses the young people who need something else.

Too many goals at once. This overloads young people and ends in failure. One or two goals is enough.

From practice

In Kanaleneiland-Zuid, money is a standing topic in the group, using M&K’s CashSkills approach. Money plays a big role in crime. By talking about it openly, we help young people see that they do not need large amounts of money to live a good life.

Try this week

Formulate one if-then plan together with a young person. Check next week whether it was used.

Key message

Tailored support means an approach that fits: more help where it is needed, less where the young person is already strong.