How to Refer

If there is a need for expertise required by our youth that we cannot address ourselves, we can look for that expertise elsewhere.  How we make this expertise available for our youth, differs depending on the situation. It does not always mean we refer or link our youth to another organisation to access the needed expertise – in some cases, we  make sure we include this expertise in the platforms where we engage with our target audience.

Examples of the different ways in which your platform can link young people to the appropriate service providers include:

• Including experts/expertise of service providers in our content creation, representing the view of experts on relevant topics. For example, in China, some bloggers are doctors, lawyers and psychologists. They also have a Q&A section on their digital platform, where they collect users’ questions and publish the answers from experts on a weekly basis.
• Linking to service providers on our platform:
  • On websites and via social media channels, or during digital campaigns.
  • In discussions/private messages relating to health, gender-based violence, sexual harassment, career/employment services and legal aid.
• Facilitating (digital) network events that connect  youth to relevant service providers, for example in Egypt where young jobseekers are linked to recruiters and companies
• Adding a specialised service provision for youth through our platforms, for example in Syria where young people were offered free online consultations and capacity building on their career development, by professional consultants (see case study-RNW Media in Syria)

Watch the video below to learn some key do’s and don’ts of service referral:

Case study: Masaraat in Egypt The digital component of the Masaraat programme is designed for new graduates and job seekers who, especially now during the covid-19 crisis, are not mobile and lack the networks and means to access the job market. Masaraat is planning to launch the first virtual job fair in Egypt in collaboration with EYouth, gathering companies and recruiters in one place with certain number of job vacancies and providing the recruiters with qualified candidates who have been through Masaraat’s training programme. Case study: RNW Media in Syria RNW Media’s digital media platform in Syria, offered young people free online consultations on their career development. A digital advisory service was launched on the platform for youth to ask questions to external consultants on their education, employment or entrepreneurial ambitions. The online service benefitted over 2100 young Syrians in less than 6 months with 90% of the beneficiaries of the project expressing satisfactory outcomes. Youth received one on one mentoring from professional consultants and interactive training workshops were launched on the Zoom platform reaching 640 young people. Consultations were carried out either through online interviews, email exchanges or phone calls. The young people trusted the digital advisory service platform to connect them with reliable and knowledgeable career counsellors and business mentors, many of which were coming from the private sector in Syria.