In EU countries, adolescents face a lot of mental distress, disorders and diagnosed mental health problems. Partner countries in our project are at the top at the rate of suicide; Slovenia is second, Belgium and Poland in fifth to seventh place. Due to the alarming data on the mental health of young people and the death by suicide of the EU since 2008, it calls on youth organizations and all those who work with young people to be trained to recognize symptoms and react quickly. In our many years of youth work experience we detect various forms of distress adolescents and respond to them with appropriate programs. We have learned that our youth workers, leaders, trainers and animators that they work very good, proficient in many skills and processes through non-formal and experiential learning gained many competences; they lack aspect of personal growth as a cornerstone in youth work. There was a need for knowledge and skills beyond the mere knowledge of group dynamics as a field of inner-psychological interactions and dynamics as a result of these are visible in a group. In the psychosocial interactive dynamics, both the individual as well as group play an important role in these dynamics, which reach all on a visual level, behavior and internal processes are taking place unconsciously. So it is very important what each person brings to the group, especially what youth worker brings to the group and that they understand the dynamics of this interaction. If a youth worker, leader, coach work on their own personal growth, it affects the growth of the group and the individual. The same was through various joint projects and events detected in other EU organizations. When we talked about it with other youth workers and trainers, they immediately understood what we are talking about, but did not know how to name it until it was not verbalized. We are aware that we can only give our youth forward what we have ourselves. What we do not have, we cannot give. Therefore, we believe that knowledge of the internal processes in the relational level is essential for personal growth, which should be a fundamental tool in youth work. This is what we want to achieve with our project at a transnational level, because this need is common for partner organizations. Trans-national level gives the project huge added value. Enhanced cooperation between organizations from different countries will contribute to the exchange of practices which have been identified in these countries and to the development of innovative practices, tools. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT: - establish a strategic partnership of partner youth organizations to exchange practices and increase the quality of youth work - to develop a new tool for the empowerment of youth workers - allow the identification of personal growth as a fundamental tool in youth work - personal growth to increase tolerance and reduce bullying, since the transformation of anger and conflict is foundation of our program - disseminate the results of the project among youth organizations at the local, national and EU level. TARGET GROUP: - youth workers, coaches, trainers, animators, mentors, leaders of informal groups of young people - teachers and educators - anyone who works with young people. In our project all three of partner organizations from Slovenia, Poland and Belgium will develop a new, innovative tool in youth work - a model of personal growth through various methods of experiential learning, which will cover the 5 core modules, which meaningful and mutually complement and upgrade. Our intellectual result comprises 5 modules: 1. INTEGRATION OF MY PERSONALITY 2. MY BACKPACK 3. IT IS I 4. THE PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY RELATIONS 5. VISION, GOALS AND COMMUNICATION The modules will be developed in three international project meetings and will be tested within their own organizations and in the short-term mobility of staff, where we will be joined by associate partners. The project will have two multiplier events - two annual international conferences - in Slovenia and Poland, where will be all main topics of the project professionally discussed and presented. The crown of the conference will be the presentation of the new tool (intellectual result) and the test results. We will also issue a publication describing the project, especially 5 modules in 4 languages: English, Slovenian, Polish and French. We will also demo video for the purposes of informing and disseminating results. Project duration: 26 months We believe that personal growth as a tool in youth work is of fundamental importance. It is not an upgrade, but the foundation on which to build a quality youth work and connects the other aspects of youth work in a meaningful and useful whole.
In EU adolescents face a lot of mental distress, disorders and diagnosed mental health problems. Project Partner countries are at the top at the suicide rate; Slovenia is second, Belgium and Poland in fifth to seventh place. Due to the alarming data on the mental health of youth, the EU since 2008, it calls on youth organizations and all those who work with young people to be trained to recognize symptoms and react quickly. In many years of youth work experience we detect various forms of distress adolescents and respond to them with appropriate programs. We have learned that our youth workers, leaders, trainers and animators that they work very good, proficient in many skills and processes through non-formal and experiential learning gained many competences; they lack aspect of personal growth as a cornerstone in youth work. There was a need for knowledge and skills beyond the mere knowledge of group dynamics as a field of inner-psychological interactions and dynamics as a result of these are visible in a group. In the psychosocial interactive dynamics, both the individual as well as group, play an important role in these dynamics, which reach all on a visual level, behavior and internal processes are taking place unconsciously. So it is very important what each person brings to the group, especially what youth worker brings to the group and that they understand the dynamics of this interaction. If a youth worker, leader, coach work on their own personal growth, it affects the growth of the group and the individual. The same was through various joint projects and events detected in other EU organizations. When we talked about it with other youth workers,trainers, they immediately understood what we are talking about, but did not know how to name it until it was not verbalized. We are aware that we can only give our youth forward what we have ourselves. Therefore, we believe that knowledge of the internal processes in the relational level is essential for personal growth, which should be a fundamental tool in youth work. This is what we want to achieve with our project at a transnational level, because this need is common for partner organizations. Trans-national level gives the project huge added value. Enhanced cooperation between organizations from different countries contributed to the exchange of practices which have been identified in these countries and to the development of innovative practices, tools. RESULTS: - a strategic partnership was established, which helped to raise the quality of youth work in partner organizations - A new tool for empowering youth workers has been developed - we ensured the recognition of personal growth as a fundamental tool in youth work - Personal growth increases tolerance and reduces peer violence, as the themes of transformation of anger and conflict are the basis of our program - We have disseminated the results of the project among youth organizations at local, national and EU level and we will continue to do so. TARGET GROUPS: - youth workers, mentors, animators, leaders of informal youth groups - teachers and educators - everyone who works with youth. Each organization selected 4 participants according to skills, competencies using the same key: - Directly involved in the implementation of the project by the partners are employed youth workers with at least 3 years of experience - the participants in the pilot local testing of the tool were employees, volunteers of the partner organization who have been leaders of the youth group or youth program for at least 1 year, - Participants in international conferences: general professional and other public. We developed a new, innovative tool in youth work with partner organizations from Poland and Belgium - a model of personal growth, which includes 5 key modules that compliment, upgrade and follow each other in a meaningful way. Our intellectual result consists of 5 modules: 1. INTEGRATION OF MY PERSONALITY 2. MY BACKPACK 3. THIS IS ME 4. PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY RELATIONSHIPS 5. VISIONS, GOALS AND COMMUNICATION The project included 4 international project meetings, we developed intellectual results in three and tested them within our own organizations. In the project we had two multiplication events, the final international conference, in Slovenia and Poland, which highlighted the topics discussed in the project itself and the presentation of new tools and test results. We published an e-publication in 4 languages: English, Slovenian, Polish, Flemish and a presentation video for the purpose of informing and disseminating the results. PROJECT DURATION: 24 months EFFECTS: participants achieved change in personal growth, greater self-awareness, their own and other people's needs, the importance of personal boundaries and the importance of processing burdening personal internal psychological content. They achieved new personal strength, the courage to make important changes and better relationships.