The article analyses non-formal education practices amongst young people in a suburb of Salvador, focussing on socio-professional insertion. It centres on experiences involving young people in Theatre Workshops, an Electricity Course and the Youth Agent Programme carried out in the space of a local Residents' Association, considered as an important reference in the district. The choice of an urban suburb reflects studies showing that this is where the State is largely absent and where economically and culturally disadvantaged young people are concentrated. In these "forgotten" spaces they confront stigmas which directly affect their socio-professional insertion.
youth; non-formal education; socio-professional insertion