By implementing this project we want to achieve a practical and visible improvement in the daily work of youth workers and youth organisations across Europe. In our communities young people face increasing challenges linked to mental health problems, social exclusion, and discrimination. Youth workers are often the first to meet these issues, but many still lack the competences, tools, or confidence to respond constructively and sustainably. At the same time, youth organisations often do not have enough capacity to introduce innovative methods or to systematically include disadvantaged young people. For this reason, our training course “Compassionate Youth Work: Mental Health & Nonviolent Communication” has been designed to give youth workers concrete skills and strategies they can immediately apply in their practice. The project brings together partners from the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Romania. It will involve 30 youth workers, a trainer, and a facilitator, and it will indirectly reach many more young people and organisations through dissemination. The objectives are practical, realistic, and strongly rooted in the needs of youth work today. Main objectives: - Equip youth workers with practical tools to support young people’s mental health, wellbeing, and resilience. This includes learning to recognise stress and trauma, applying nonviolent communication in conflicts, and building safe spaces for dialogue. For example, a Portuguese youth worker supporting refugee volunteers will learn to use empathy and structured communication, while a Greek participant working in rural areas will apply resilience-building exercises with isolated young people. - Improve the quality and innovation of youth work practice by integrating new participatory and non-formal methods such as role plays, simulations, case studies, creative group work, and peer reflection. A Czech pedagogy student may adapt case studies for classroom use, while a Spanish youth worker may use role plays to address intercultural issues in a community centre. - Develop inclusive approaches to ensure that disadvantaged and marginalised youth are reached. Romanian participants will bring new methods to youth clubs in Timisoara, while Dutch participants will apply inclusion strategies in migrant communities. - Raise awareness of Erasmus+ opportunities among young people in local communities. Through social media posts, small multiplier events, and presentations in schools or youth clubs, participants will act as ambassadors of the programme, showing by example how Erasmus+ contributes to personal and professional growth. - Strengthen organisational capacity of the applicant and partners through international cooperation, project management, and networking. This will enable newcomer organisations to learn from experienced NGOs and grow in competence. - Integrate transversal competences such as digital skills, green practices, and inclusion strategies into daily youth work. Participants will learn how to use digital tools to engage young people, reduce ecological footprint of activities, and make programmes more accessible. * Expected outcomes for youth work practice: - stronger capacity to support young people with fewer opportunities through inclusive and compassionate approaches; - direct use of innovative methods such as nonviolent communication, resilience-building, and peer learning in workshops and meetings; - creation of safer and more participatory environments in schools, NGOs, and community centres; - youth projects designed with more sustainability, digital elements, and accessibility in mind; - youth workers acting as visible multipliers of Erasmus+ in their communities and networks. This project will therefore not remain at the level of theory but will directly improve how youth workers operate in their everyday practice. By linking clearly identified needs, concrete objectives, and tested methods, the competences developed during the training course will be effectively transferred back into local organisations and communities. The applicant and partners will also gain capacity to deliver quality projects and will build new international cooperation that can continue in the future. The overall aim is that youth workers return home with new competences, stronger confidence, and strategies ready to improve the lives of the young people they support every day. In this way the project will achieve its objectives: making youth work more innovative, inclusive, sustainable, and compassionate, in full alignment with the values and priorities of Erasmus+.