Prisms is a group of experienced youth workers that in 2008 came together with the aim of creating an NGO that caters for the requirements of young people and those working with young people. Prisms aims to empower people with the skills, tools, information and values necessary for personal growth and to be active participants within society. Prisms provides to the necessities of the people it works with through innovative non-formal methods of education so as to reach their needs in a holistic manner.

Prisms focuses on coaching and mentoring, online tools, mental wellbeing, inclusion and disability through the following objectives:

Young people

– Context out: Prisms strives to connect with young people in their environment. Our youth workers reach out to the young people to understand their living situation, at which point they are in their lives and their key relationships with others,
– Needs-analysis: At the basis of all of our activities lies a person-centred approach that enables us to connect with a purpose. Prisms listens to the young people and their life experiences and together with the young person they identify the needs to be addressed.
– Empower: Prisms believes that every person has potential and through a positive relationship with the young person, it challenges them to set achievable goals for their growth

Youth workers

– Prisms focuses on both the personal and professional development of youth workers. We believe that the general wellbeing of the youth worker is pivotal as they serve as role-models for young people. Developing their intra and inter personal skills enables the youth worker to engage better with the young people they work with. Prisms provides tools to the youth workers to be more self-reflective and identify areas for growth.
– Linked with the above, on a professional level, Prisms offers innovative tools and methods on how the youth workers can reach, connect, engage an  empower young people.

Target groups

Prisms has two main target groups;

1) Young people aged between 13 and 35 years old
2) Youth workers, youth leaders and other professionals that work with young people. There is no particular age range for this target group.

Geographical reach and main activities

Our activities are carried out both at a national and European level. We work with both young people and youth workers both local and foreigner. We deliver workshops, seminars and training courses. Through the years, Prisms has developed its expertise in online youth work and online tools that provide the opportunity to the youth workers to engage with young people both online and offline. Additionally, we are currently providing training to educators in Malta as part of their Community of Professional Educators’ sessions (CoPE). The training is provided on anger management, integration of online characteristics in an online environment and intercultural communication.

The successful implementation of our initiatives is also attributable to the fact that Prisms has always sought to create meaningful collaborations and we have thus created national partnerships with the Directorate for Educational Services, San Gorg Preca College and Migrants Learners Unit with the Ministry for Education and Employment, the Institute for Tourism Studies, the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), the Platform for Human Rights
Organisations in Malta (PHROM), St. Patrick’s School, the Karl Vella Foundation, the Commission for the Rights for Persons of Disability, Agenzija Sapport, Agenzija Zghazagh and Fondazzjoni Sebh. On a European level, Prisms is part of international networks such as Mais Cidadinia, PRISMA European Network, Anna Lindh Foundation and the International Experiential Learning Network. This ensures that our initiatives are of good quality and that they offer space for youth workers and young people to build their own and their organization capacity whilst also offering good quality youth work practices. These partnerships offer the possibility of exchanges of best practices.

Prisms has been implementing projects and organizing training courses on a national and European Level since its setting-up. We invest a lot of time and effort to promote youth work and non-formal education in innovative ways. Indeed, our organisation believes that we should be where the young people are and we should not base our activities on the belief that young people will come to us but rather we should go them. For this reason all our activities and projects are based on an in-depth needs analysis and are built by, with and for the young people. As important is the fact that we believe that youth workers and those working with young people should make use of online youth work practices so as to be closer to the young people and to engage better with them. Indeed, we are engaged in a number of projects that provide more quality youth work through online services.