“The Ocean Within” is a project about building resilience by applying water-work, breath-work and storytelling as different innovative methods, and in this way supporting youth workers in assisting their youth, and improving the quality of youth work. WHY & CONCEPT The development of this project started from some bitter considerations collected among us and our partners: our youth is more and more experiencing anxiety and disquiet, being so exposed to an uncertain future, given the turmoil in the international scene, the climate change, and their lack of clear points of reference. We observe how the number of young people that are so overwhelmed that they cannot participate in social life, studies or work is increasingly growing at an alarming rate. We feel that youth work is called to provide interventions whenever possible. To give our own contribution, we developed a project that aimed at providing youth workers with innovative methodologies to support their target groups in building resilience. The methodologies that we refer to are: -BREATHWORK: as a researched method for stress reduction, using different techniques to increase state management and self regulation; -WATER BASED METHODS: using water as a context to experience mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and emotional balance; -STORYTELLING: inviting imagination as a resource and exploring the power of choosing/shifting narratives as a base for wellbeing. NEEDS The needs of our partners were connected to the increasing level of stress in youth, as mentioned. In particular, from what we collected from them, they needed: -innovative and attractive methodologies to propose to their target groups, and therefore to be trained in how to effectively integrate these approaches into their work; -to learn how to recognize signs of anxiety, disquiet, or social withdrawal among youth, and what are possible interventions (through the methods that we explored); -clear guidance on how to implement these methods and how to integrate them into their broader youth work; -learn how to create supportive and inclusive environments, where vulnerable youth can feel at ease and safe enough to access them; -make sure that these practices are inclusive for individuals with diverse needs and sensitivities. OBJECTIVES -To create a PDA in which 31 youth workers could come together and be trained in methods from breathwork, water based work and storytelling as tools to build resilience in vulnerable youth. -To guide our participants in the creation of implementation activities at their local level, having an impact on the youth they target (other youth workers and young people in their communities) -To realize events of local implementation, between integrations of elements of the PDA in the practice of the partner organizations, and workshops involving the target youth. -To publish posts (or other forms of dissemination) about the PDA and its implementation. -To evaluate the project using questionnaires at the end of the PDA, and zoom calls with participants at the end of the implementation phase. The PDA of this project happened in Italy, where we found a location with a heated swimming pool at our exclusive disposal during the 8 days of the training, for a convenient cost. Regarding the improvement of the quality of YOUTH WORK, we focused on the implementation of the three methodologies we propose. The PDA did not only provide direct experience of them, but also reflection and guidance for the youth workers on how to apply them, how to adapt them to their context, and the chance to elaborate and test activities that can be used in the local implementation phase, to make the application and transferring of the learning direct and effective.