The primary objective of Rise & Shine was to strengthen the professional infrastructure for youth workers by equipping them with the specialized tools needed to manage stress and build long-term resilience. Our specific goals included: • Resource development: Creating a suite of evidence-based, practical well-being tools, including a 30-day Planner and a Toolkit, tailored specifically to the unique emotional and logistical challenges of youth work. • Community building: Establishing a sustainable, cross-border Peer Support Network to reduce professional isolation and foster international solidarity among practitioners. • Cultural shift: Moving the sectoral narrative from viewing self-care as a personal choice to recognizing it as a core professional standard and a key prerequisite for high-quality youth work. • Policy influence: Providing national and European policymakers with concrete evidence and recommendations to embed mental health support into formal youth work frameworks, occupational health standards, and funding cycles. Ultimately, we sought to improve the quality of service provided to young people by ensuring the professionals supporting them are grounded, resilient, and supported by their organizations.
Youth workers are the backbone of social support for Europe's youth, yet they operate in high-pressure, under-resourced environments where their own mental health is frequently neglected. We applied for this project to address a critical, documented gap: while youth workers are professionally trained to care for the well-being of young people, there is a systemic lack of structural support for the workers' own mental health. The needs we addressed were rooted in the documented high risk of professional burnout, vicarious trauma, and emotional exhaustion prevalent across the sector. Prior to this project, well-being in youth work was often treated as an individual responsibility or an optional luxury, rather than a structural necessity for quality work. We identified a pressing need for practical, low-barrier tools that could fit into a demanding, "time-poor" workday. Our goal was to move the narrative away from the unattainable "perfect moment" of self-care toward realistic, daily reflective practices. By addressing these psychosocial risks through a targeted professional development approach, we aimed to ensure the long-term sustainability and quality of the youth work profession across our six partner countries.