Why do they need a Life Project?

Excluded young people are first and foremost victims: victims of their families, or what’s left of them, victims of the inhuman polluted cities, victims of poverty with no means of feeding themselves, of looking after themselves, of burying their dead etc.

Every day is a struggle that they learn to lighten by any means, a temptation which can soon become an addiction. If you look carefully there is little chance of breaking out of this vicious circle of misery.

And yet, young people who come from great poverty have this capacity to bounce back, even from the very lowest point : what Boris Cyrulnik describes as resilience. And their resilience is powerful.

Creating a Life Project requires them to deep into their past in order to build something for the future. We’re not talking about drawing up a contract saying what will or won’t be done. Nor are we asking them to predict their own future.

But it is a process of reflection which allows the young person to build his or her own project based on certain core values and by taking into account the essentials of what he/she wants to achieve in life.

As they get to know themselves the young people gradually develop a taste for this long-term view. The Life Project sessions are alternately individual, in groups, and one on one with the coach. The sessions are of course based on listening but they are first and foremost practical, being rooted in the achievements of the “Work”, “Study” or “Personal Development” sessions.

It is an interactive process during which we encourage the young people to detail their projects in writing.

But the idea of a project scares them. Will I be able to complete it? Am I up to this? It would be so easy to give up. Life Projects require exceptional listening skills from the LP4Y Staff, not to mention great kindness – and patience.

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