A significant amount of young adults are struggling with their mental health—nearly half of those surveyed reported feeling high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. In fact, 48% of young people say they are dealing with these challenges but aren’t getting the support they need. Historically, in many traditional schools across Europe, the emphasis has been placed more on academic (knowledge) performance than on fostering emotional growth. Because of this, many young people and youth workers may not have the right tools to manage their emotions or resolve conflicts effectively. At the same time, the rising number of violent conflicts worldwide highlights the urgent need for peacebuilding. The average level of country peacefulness deteriorated by 0.56 per cent in the 2024 Global Peace Index. At the same time, many peacebuilders face burnout and emotional exhaustion, which limits their ability to make a lasting positive impact. The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) stresses that personal well-being is essential to create and maintain peace. Taking it into account, with this project we wanted to advocate for and create inclusive spaces for empathy, expression, and engagement in peacebuilding with care, and wellbeing. In our youth work practice within Waking Life community and Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (two communities who partnered up for this project), we noticed young people are willing to engage in discussions, spaces, and practices where they can practise care, self-care, wellbeing and dialogue. As a result we proposed our project “MINDFUL BRIDGES - a training program for youth workers to develop inner clarity and outer harmony for a culture of peace”. The project aimed to develop competences of 22 young change-makers and youth workers in inner peace, wellbeing, community building and peacebuilding in order to boost their resilience necessary in youth work. Through non-formal education and connection with the natural environment participants developed their competences fostering personal growth, self-regulation, and collective well-being ultimately leading to their more active role in youth work and as active citizens working towards culture of peace in their local communities. The objectives were : -to develop participants’ understanding of concepts of peace, conflict, violence, peacebuilding, wellbeing and resilience; -to reflect over inner peace as a foundation of strength, balance, and confidence, enabling participants to use it as a guide for interacting with the world and managing challenges in their local youth work; -to equip participants with tools and practices to manage anxiety and stress, fostering emotional resilience and preventing burnout in youth work, like resonant healing, emotional literacy, breathwork, body movement meditation; -to promote taking care of mental health and enhance resilience by providing participants with practices of mindfulness, somatic movement, and creativity; -to equip participants with tools to handle interpersonal and group conflicts peacefully, such as nonviolent communication and conflict management modes; -to encourage participants to deepen their connection to nature through promotion of the ecosystem awareness, sustainable land care and practical engagement in land regeneration projects; -to reflect over the shift from individual well-being into collective growth and to explore a sense of belonging, cooperation, and community among participants, enhancing relationships for peacebuilding. -to develop at least 5 follow-up activities in which participants would translate gained competences into their local youth work projects or work of their organisations. This project addressed the need for an approach that combines self-care with social responsibility. It encouraged youth workers and peacebuilders to be mindful of their inner peace, which led to creation of the youth work eco-system in which they are equipped to initiate change from within and affect change in the outside world.