N.E.x.T TO YOU - Network for the Empowerment, the social and labor inclusion of Trafficked minors and young adults is a project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund 2019 and coordinated by Veneto Region Department of “Addictions, Third Sector, new deviances and social inclusion”, directed by Maria Carla Midena.

It gathers 4 Member States and 8 partners active in the support and protection of minors and young people victims of human trafficking.

In addition to the Veneto Region, the project involves the Human Rights Centre “Antonio Papisca” of the University of Padua, the Social Cooperative Equality (Italy), ENSA (European Network of Social Authorities) in collaboration with the Veneto Region Brussels Office, the Social Cooperative Comunità dei Giovani (Italy), Payoke (Belgium), the Association France Terre d’Asile (France) and Cruz Blanca Foundation (Spain).

N.E.x.T. TO YOU consists in intensifying identification efforts and enhancing the integration process of minors and young adults victims of human trafficking during their migration journey.
More specifically, the project has four main goals:

Firstly, N.e.x.t. TO YOU aims to improve the minors’ identification process upon their arrival in Europe by strengthening the capacity of local and national authorities, social services, migration professionals, reception centres’ employees, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.

Secondly, the project partners will help sixty trafficked minors and young adults in their professional integration process through the elaboration and the implementation of intensive training and job placement programs. In particular, each member State partner of the project will provide the beneficiaries with 15 traineeships and/or scholarships and 10 employment contracts.

The third goal of the project is to ensure increased ethno-psychological support to eighty trafficked young adults through group counselling and individual support.

Lastly, N.E.x.T. TO YOU intends to bolster the exchange of knowledge and best practices among the authorities assisting victims of human trafficking. Such knowledge-sharing initiatives will mainly concern the early identification of people having the right to a temporary protection status, their socio-economic empowerment, and their psychological support, particularly if they belong to the most fragile and vulnerable categories.