ABOUT CATCH
What CATCH is
about.
When young people face marginalisation, unemployment, discrimination or limited opportunities, they may need more than educational activities, they may need support in recognising their strengths, identifying their goals and finding the motivation to take the next step.
Coaching helps people identify meaningful goals, recognise the resources they already have, and take ownership of their development. It supports reflection, resilience, autonomy and motivation.
CATCH brought this approach to youth work, focusing on practitioners working with young people facing social exclusion and fewer opportunities.
Over the project, 20 youth workers and support staff took part in a learning journey combining three international training courses, three webinars and continuous local practice.
The partners also created free practical resources, translated into five languages, that make the learning accessible to the wider youth work field.
Objectives
Empower youth workers
with coaching competences
A structured, internationally delivered programme leading to real coaching competence — aligned with the standards of the European and International Coaching Federations. Not a few techniques, but developing practitioners as coaches who can work with clients over time and support lasting change.
Enable local activities that improve
career choices and pathways
Each partner put their learning into practice, delivering coaching to participants in their communities. Young people in marginalised situations received individual and group coaching improving their sense of direction, confidence, and pathways toward employment or further learning.
Establish sustainable coaching practices
By training coaches who then trained others, building local partnerships, and producing free multilingual resources, CATCH aimed to leave lasting coaching infrastructure in each community — coaching as an integrated part of how each organisation works with young people.
Advocate for the recognition of youth coaching
Most concretely through the European Youth Coaching Competence Standard a framework defining what youth coaching is, what it requires, and how it can be assessed. By naming the competences involved, CATCH helps recognise youth coaching as a legitimate method within the youth and social sector.
Why coaching in youth work?
Coaching is not therapy. It is something specific and that specificity is what makes it valuable.
A coach helps a person:
Identify what they
want to achieve
Understand what's holding them back
Discover resources they already have
Take concrete steps toward their goals
The process belongs to the person being coached.
The coach doesn't give advice, set the agenda, or fix problems.
Coaching addresses the inner layer: the attitudes, motivation and self-belief that make everything else more likely to work.
This has particular power with young people who are disengaged, demotivated, or facing complex barriers. Educational programmes build knowledge and skills; vocational training opens doors to the labour market.
But unless a person has a sense of direction, ownership of their development, and the confidence to take the next step, these opportunities often go unused.
A clear boundary: coaching is not a substitute for mental health support.
CATCH took this seriously throughout. Participants disclosed whether they were receiving mental health support, and the project kept clear boundaries between coaching and therapeutic practice. Youth coaching is a support method within youth work: powerful within those boundaries, and important to stay within them.
Why it matters for social inclusion
Young people facing marginalisation through poverty, displacement, discrimination, or growing up somewhere with few opportunities — often carry burdens beyond a lack of skills or qualifications. They may have internalised low expectations, struggle to imagine a different future, or learned that effort doesn't pay off.
Coaching works at that level helping people reconnect with what they genuinely want, identify their strengths, and develop the self-direction that turns any other support into something meaningful.
Why it complements youth work
Youth workers already build relationships, facilitate learning, and support personal development. Coaching competences deepen what they can do, holding more powerful conversations, helping young people set goals, and supporting them through transitions more intentionally.
CATCH tested this in five local contexts and found it worked.
