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Move for well-being of youth

2022-1-SI02-KA153-YOU-0000666802022Mobility of youth workersfinalizedGood practice
Countries: SI|NL|HU|HR|IT|TR|ES|SK|CZ|MT · Grant: €27,504.8
Youth policy developmentPhysical and mental health, well-beingKey competences development

Objectives

The key goal of this training was to expand youth workers holistic understanding of the concept of youth mental health and the concept of well-being. To look into the importance of youth work and the youth sector for the promotion of mental and psychosocial health, which deals with building psychosocial strengths, competences and resources in individuals and communities. And to show youth workers in a structured way which competencies the development of young people is important for positive mental health and easier coping with life's challenges. And additionally to see together how to develop these competencies. Theoretically, experientially and through the delivery of practical tools and work methods/techniques, we went over key competencies that are important for building the capacity and resilience of young people and taught youth workers different approaches/methods of work, how to develop these key competencies in young people in their everyday work. We wanted to introduce youth workers to the modern understanding that in preventive work, as well as taking action when problems arise, it is important to focus on psychosocial strengths, resources and protective factors, rather than focusing excessively on the problem itself. The aim of the training is to give the participants a clear understanding of what youth workers can do and learn concrete basic techniques to promote positive mental health and develop skills to solve problems if they arise. We also wanted to exchange different practices of organizations, how they deal with this issue, and from all of this to extract future good practice for each specific organization. This is about building a community among youth workers and supporting each other in dealing with the issue of mental health of young people. The goal of the project is also to improve the practice of working with young people with fewer opportunities, as these young people are often also people with various hardships. Here, we wanted to supplement youth workers knowledge of innovative and experiential approaches in youth work, such as theater or physically interactive approaches. We wanted to increase the quality of youth work, especially with a more vulnerable group of young people. Work methods and approaches are inclusive and preventive, at the same time we will learn how to approach young people in various difficulties in a way of empowerment - building on their resources and protective factors. The goal is that the organizations included un the trainung actually change/improve their practice in this area and that a greater awareness of the importance of mental health, as well as the "normality/frequency" of young people's mental distress develops in the organizations (and also more broadly, through the promotion of the project and dissemination of results). An important goal is also that the developed and committed tools/methods/knowledge are used in their organization and spread more widely. For this purpose, teaching material will also be produced - a clear manual of collected practices in education and a detailed curriculum for youth workers, which will be made in such a way that it can also be used by organizations and individuals who are not part of education. With this, an important aim is also to address the systemic problem of mental health issues (waiting lines are long, stigmatization of mental disorders and difficult access to professional help affects vulnerable groups of young people the most) and to establish an alternative informal system of support and assistance. Young people have much greater access to primary youth workers than to professional workers in the field of mental health. With the right approach, youth workers can ease many hardships, even prevent them, or guide young people forward accordingly (without stigmatization, in a way of empowerment). By disseminating the results of the project, we want to change the public's understanding of mental distress and destigmatize it. This social stigma makes it harder for young people and their parents to seek help. We also wanted to spread and promote the usefulness of physical, experiential and theatrical methods for developing protective factors in young people, as well as as help in dealing with adversity and used as a medium of communication. Internationaly we wanted to network, spread and develop quality youth policy, prevention, creative and innovative ways of working with young people, especially at the level of mental health of young people. We used the training to develop and adapt work methods and techniques that we want to apply to future programs and projects of organizations. We want to develop and spread a quality curriculum model for working with young people in connection with positive mental health and capacity building. In this sense, the goal of the training also contributed to the development of a quality curriculum for youth work at the EU level in the field of youth mental health.

Project partners (12)