Evelien Rauwerdink-Nijland

Dr. Evelien Rauwerdink-Nijland serves as Professor of Youth and Society at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, embedded within the Center of Expertise Prevention in Healthcare and Welfare. Her work focuses on empowering marginalized youth (16-27 years) through research addressing cultural, socio-economic, and identity-based exclusion. She maintains active collaborations with frontline professionals and directly involves young people in all research phases to ensure practical impact.

Her academic journey includes a Master's in Social Work from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and a PhD from Radboud University examining street corner work effectiveness. Prior to academia, she spent over a decade as a street-level youth worker at perMens in Amsterdam, combining this with a professional volleyball career that informed her understanding of team dynamics and resilience.

Rauwerdink-Nijland's research synthesizes practice-based methodologies with critical social theory, emphasizing actionable outcomes for youth welfare systems. Her work on resilience frameworks and professional empowerment strategies directly informs both policy development and educational curricula at Inholland's Social Work and Pedagogy programs.

She leads the Youth and Society research group through participatory approaches where young people co-design solutions. Her activist research philosophy ensures findings rapidly translate into field applications, particularly through her widely adopted handbook on street corner work methodology and ongoing partnerships with municipal youth services across the Netherlands.