The purpose of this paper is to clarify the actual conditions of youth in social difficulties in Japan and to examine the characteristics and meanings of 'educational support' for them from the viewpoint of literacy theory as a social practice. My colleagues and I carried out a four-year qualitative study of several private groups supporting young people from 2012 to 2015. In this study, we visited the groups and conducted semi-structured interviews with young learners (aged from 16 to 23) and their supporters. It became clear during the interviews that most young learners had not received sufficient basic education because of their delinquency or truancy, and they had had very few opportunities to build relationships of trust with those around them. The elements of the support that is needed are clarified in this study as follows: (1) building relationships of trust with young learners, (2) nurturing learners' motivation and/or self-confidence, (3) emphasizing learners' ideas, interests and literacies embedded in their everyday lives. These points show that 'educational support' for youth in social difficulties should by no means only be about the transmission of skills or fragmentary knowledge, but also the cultivation of motivation for learning and/or self-confidence based on relationships of trust.