In fact Caring youth has done good for me. Caring youth has changed my behaviors”- En kvalitativ studie om stöd- och hjälpinsatser som ges på Caring youth.

Abstract

This study was conducted in Kampala, Uganda at an organization we have chosen to label Caring youth. Caring youth pursues program activities for young people, who in one way or another are defined as vulnerable by the organization under scrutiny in this study. Beneficiaries at Caring youth are offered an education in vocational skills and they receive psychosocial support. The aim of this study is to examine the support given and received at Caring youth. The primarily focus is on Caring youth- participants, young women to be more specific, who have experiences of selling sex. The study is based on eight interviews with both social workers and clients who participate or have participated in Caring youth’s programs. The theoretical framework is post-colonial theory, intersectionality, labeling theory and stigma. Our results show that the clients are getting help with behavior-changing issues, in a positive way from the client’s perspective. However, our results also reveal a problematic image where both social workers and clients define sex work as a bad behavior in a need of a change. It became clear that Caring youths work primarily are directed towards women, placing most of the responsibility and blame towards the specific targeted group they explicitly aimed to empower. Furthermore, the results show that many of the informants have succeeded when completed the program. They have what could be labeled as a “success story” after graduating from Caring youth: especially if managing getting a job related to their vocational training. The program education seems to provide the participants a way out of sex work, and in addition the important experience of being included in the community. Nevertheless, a problematic contradiction to the “success story’s seems to appear when the social workers reveal that not all the clients have succeeded and some dropped out of the program. Important factors that can make a client drop out from Caring youth’s program can be shame and stigma. Most importantly, the results show, in terms of how the clients have experienced being excluded from both the community and within the organization, that effects of the support that the clients get from Caring youth should be under scrutiny. Informants discloses a considerable difference of how they are treated after their graduation at Caring youth.