After the kick off meeting in Brusselss, partners started working on the methodology they would follow for their national research. This document will guide research activities of the Safe Spaces project and is being developed by the BK CON with the contribution of all partners. It considers the main assumptions underlying proposal development, Consortium capacities and envisaged impact. The presented document provides insights into selected approach, techniques, and procedures to be used by Partners during first project phase.

Though, the mixed methods research approach (analysis of primary and secondary data) combining qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to allow for identification of synergies and overlapping aspects of youth centers operations.

At national level, primary data will be collected directly from the two main target groups for profiling purposes. Different approaches will be adopted given target group characteristics:

• Questionnaires distributed among youth center professional staff to acquire relevant information on the level of education and training, skills and competences, work environment, licensing and certification and personal characteristics and challenges faced in daily professional practice.
• Focus groups will be organised in each implementation country always considering different educational level, language barriers and unique needs, circumstances, and vulnerabilities of unaccompanied minors of each community. Professionals in charge of these groups will follow the recommendations stated in the Research Methodologyin terms of the depth of issues to be covered and will focus on main difficulties, fears, challenges as well as unique competencies, future aspirations, and goals of minors.

A second level of data collection will be through Desk research (mainly conducted by BK Con and supported by information by each partner organisation), gathering basic data on youth centers activity, legal framework within which they operate, inner capacities (number and type of staff employed, type of contract applied), target groups, and relevant stakeholders (local authorities supporting youth centers, donors, collaborating ONGs inter alia), among others.

The final result will be soon published in the project website!