Heart’s Longing is a Professional Development Activity that aims to strengthen the quality of youth work by equipping youth workers with practical, embodied and accessible tools to work with emotions, vulnerability and resilience in their daily practice with young people. Across Europe, youth workers increasingly face situations where young people struggle with anxiety, emotional overload, fear of failure, lack of direction and a weakened sense of personal power. These challenges affect young people’s participation, well-being and ability to make choices. Youth workers are often expected to respond to these situations, yet many feel under-prepared to work with strong emotions in a grounded, non-therapeutic and empowering way. At the same time, youth workers themselves are affected by emotional fatigue, stress and a constant pressure to “hold space” for others, which impacts the quality and sustainability of their work. Heart’s Longing responds to these realities by supporting youth workers both professionally and personally, always from a youth work perspective. AIM OF THE PROJECT The overall aim of Heart’s Longing is to SUPPORT YOUTH WORKERS IN STRENGTHENING RESILIENCE, EMOTIONAL AWARENESS AND PERSONAL POWER IN YOUNG PEOPLE, by learning how to work constructively with vulnerability rather than avoiding or “fixing” it. The project supports youth workers to: -recognise emotions (such as anxiety, anger, grief or shame) as meaningful signals rather than problems; -respond more calmly and skilfully in moments of emotional intensity or crisis; -create youth work spaces where young people can reconnect with desire, motivation and inner direction; -foster autonomy, responsibility and participation among young people. This is achieved through embodied learning, breathwork, storytelling based approaches and concrete youth work methods that can be directly transferred into daily practice. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT From a youth work practice perspective, the project has the following objectives: -To train 40 youth workers during an 8-day Professional Development Activity in practical competences related to resilience, vulnerability, emotional literacy, empowerment and inclusion, using non-formal, embodied and creative learning methods. -To increase youth workers’ confidence and clarity in working with emotions and vulnerability in diverse youth work settings, without crossing into therapeutic roles. -To support participants in translating learning into action, by designing and implementing concrete local activities within their organisations and communities. -To strengthen the organisational capacity of partner organisations, by integrating selected methods and approaches into their regular youth work practice. -To achieve at least 20 local implementation activities, such as youth workshops, peer-learning sessions or internal team trainings, directly involving young people or fellow youth workers. -To support visibility and learning transfer by sharing a booklet and other dissemination outputs such as testimonials and videos, showing how the learning from the PDA is applied in real youth work contexts. -To evaluate learning outcomes and impact through continuous reflection during the PDA, final participant questionnaires, and follow-up exchanges with participants and partners after the implementation phase. CONTRIBUTION TO THE QUALITY AND VALUES OF YOUTH WORK The project contributes to the quality of youth work on two interconnected levels: AT A PRACTICAL LEVEL, it strengthens youth workers’ competences, tools and attitudes, enabling them to design more effective, responsive and inclusive youth work activities that address real emotional and social needs. AT A VALUE LEVEL, Heart’s Longing promotes a vision of youth work where vulnerability is not seen as weakness, but as a doorway to learning, dialogue and connection. The project contributes to more inclusive practices, where differences, lived experiences and emotions are welcomed, and young people are supported to grow with dignity, agency and responsibility.