People disadvantaged in this case
Young people are frequently left behind in the bureaucratic public service system in the Netherlands. Among the disadvantaged, they are often the most difficult to help because they do not have the resources or experience to find their own ways through the social services system.  Take as one example a young woman, aged 19, who has not completed a basic level of education due to family problems. Her family as a unit has a bad reputation among agencies in the public sector. She has also been rejected by several welfare programs for her aggressive and confrontational behavior.  As a recipient of welfare, the benefits office wants her to work as a volunteer because her “attitude” makes her incompatible with the workplace; if she does not comply, her benefits will be docked. However, the girl herself wants to get a job to work her way out of her problems — she sees money as a potential avenue out of her problematic family situation. 
In other words, the welfare office will not let this young woman work because her attitude is so poor, but her attitude towards the public sector is so poor because she is not being allowed to pursue her own goals. There are many examples of this fundamental disconnect between available services and the needs of young people. Our innovation is designed to give such young people access to the contacts and social networks they need to achieve their life goals without sifting through the bureaucracy of federal or municipal public assistance institutions.

How the innovation improved access
The Network Program for Adolescents Dealing with Multiple Problems attempts to bridge the gaps between young social service recipients and adult service providers.  Our approach is case by case, and we focus on individual youths rather than on institutional service delivery. We mobilize social capital by putting program beneficiaries and adults in meetings to expand the networks available to youth in crisis. 
These meetings bring together young people who are out of work and out of school with adults from different sectors of society. Two moderators initiate the meetings and arrange training programs for young participants, teaching them how to present themselves to an audience.  Moderators ask these young people what they want out of the meeting and how they can put their new contacts to use. 
During the meeting, each young person recounts his or her story and the adults in the audience respond by asking questions, making suggestions, and offering information.  The goal of these interactions is to encourage established members of society to lend their expertise to individual young people for a short while, allowing disenfranchised young people to engage with adult networks of information and connections. 
It is important to emphasize that this project does not seek to establish formal mentoring relationships between adults and young people. Adults may assist young people they meet on a temporary and informal basis. The primary goal of the program is to build social capital for these disenfranchised youth by bypassing bureaucratic training programs to introduce them directly to men and women who can help them navigate the job market. 
By training program beneficiaries to identify their own solutions to their problems, the program favors a “bottom-up” approach to public service. We encourage young people to determine their own goals and to network with adults to achieve these goals. We also work outside regular government institutions to mobilize the industrial and commercial job markets to assist young people in need, giving program beneficiaries access to private sector opportunities that they might otherwise never find.

Obstacles encountered
The first challenge has been getting workers in the public sector to adopt the Network’s attitude towards the target population. As a general rule, policymakers are more likely to favor established programs in public service, which can result in young people who might benefit from the program never being referred to us. Our second major challenge has been funding. The project is researching ways to become financially independent without joining a government agency or incorporating as a for-profit venture. This project is eager to maintain independence from both state bureaucracy and profit maximizing. We are currently considering the requirements for becoming a charity.

The results of the innovation
In general, these meetings cater to 3 to 5 young people, and the majority of clients attend only one meeting. To date, this project has served 71 young people in 15 meetings, 60% of whom have subsequently returned to school or joined the labor market. We have also hosted 43 adults, the majority of whom work in industry and commerce, while others are employed in government, education, health, and politics. 
The organizers of this project have been enthusiastic in sharing its innovations as a means to improve service delivery by bypassing government institutions. Using a case-oriented approach, we have also been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of collaboration between organizations from different domains such as central, regional and local government, education, health and welfare, industry and commerce, and political parties.