The project aimed to strengthen youth worker wellbeing through a practical and innovative learning journey combining embodied practices, nature connection, reflection, and peer support. It sought to help the partner organisations, SIB and EESA, exchange and refine methodologies that can support resilience in youth work, especially through the Awareness Through the Body approach. A second objective was to build the capacity of 20 participants by helping them integrate self-care and wellbeing practices into their daily and professional lives. A third objective was to strengthen European collaboration by connecting youth workers, organisations, and experts from different countries around a shared focus on wellbeing. Finally, the project aimed to raise awareness that wellbeing is not a luxury, but a key professional resource for sustainable, ethical, and relationally safe youth work.
We applied for this project because youth workers often support others in demanding and emotionally complex situations, while receiving too little structured support for their own wellbeing and resilience. Burnout, stress, emotional overload, and the pressure to remain constantly available affect the quality and sustainability of youth work across Europe. At the same time, wellbeing is still too often treated as a private matter rather than as a professional competence. The project addressed the need for practical, accessible, and non-stigmatising ways to help youth workers strengthen self-awareness, self-regulation, presence, and community support. It also responded to the need for stronger exchange between organisations, so that effective wellbeing approaches can be tested, adapted, and shared more widely in the youth sector.