Reaching the margins: a study of outreach practices for youth in a NEET-situation

This study examines outreach practices within a regional project in Sweden, aimed at supporting young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET). Drawing on Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy, the study examines how frontline staff conceptualize and enact outreach, and how structural conditions shape its implementation. Data was collected through five focus group interviews with 46 practitioners and a document analysis. The findings reveal four interrelated dynamics: (1) outreach as a discretionary practice shaped by fragmented welfare systems, (2) systemic absorption of outreach into ordinary service provision, leading to role drift, (3) absence of relational infrastructure for sustainable transitions, and (4) conceptual vagueness undermining strategic coherence. Although outreach was regarded as essential for engaging socially isolated youth, it remained structurally unsupported and dependent on improvisation and moral commitment. The study extends Lipsky's framework by introducing the concept of relational infrastructure and highlighting the performative dimension of outreach under outcome-driven evaluation regimes. Policy implications include the need for a shared definition of outreach, integrated pathways, and metrics that capture relational outcomes. Outreach, when adequately resourced and strategically embedded, holds transformative potential for promoting social inclusion among marginalized youth.