Problems and prospects for the development of digital technologies in social work with young people

The global use of information and communication technologies encourages the development and implementation of new digital methods in social work with young people. Digital innovations are becoming not only a source of youth empowerment but also an information resource that helps to reduce the distance between the needs of young people and the institution of social work. The article discusses the current state and prospects of social work with young people in the era of the digital society. The research focuses on reviewing existing digital technologies with young people, determining the limitations of using information and communication technologies in the social sphere, identifying the actual risks of digitalization in social work with young people, and determining the degree of involvement of young people in digital social work. The design of the study is based on the case study method for digitalization processes in non-profit organizations with a social orientation in St. Petersburg, including methods of semi-structured expert interviews (N = 11), focus groups (N = 4) and document analysis. The study showed an active process of youth mobilization in the activities of socially oriented non-profit organizations as the creator of a digital project. The analysis of NGO’s activities demonstrated the difficulty of transposing quantitative indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of information and communication technologies in social work with young people into socio-psychological indicators. The author concludes that the key task of successful implementation of digital technologies in social work with young people is the need for interdisciplinary interaction and cross-sectoral cooperation, involvement of social enterprises to participate in the development of digital social projects, and training of professionals in social services in the implementation of digital practices.The research was conducted in Saint Petersburg University with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, the project no. 19-18-00246 “Challenges of the transformation of welfare state in Russia: institutional changes, social investment, digitalization of social services”