Unlock headspace – Education for youth wellbeing, self-care and empowerment

This project pursues the following distinct objectives:

  • to strengthen the competences of youth workers in supporting young people`s personal well-being, mental and physical health and personal development to become active and responsible citizens;
  • to develop innovative, needs-based educational activities and materials for self-care, mindfulness and well-being of young people;
  • to intensify transnational cooperation between the project partners on self-care, mindfulness and well-being as preconditions for personal development of young people.

What distinguishes our programme from others is its unique and innovative entry point. We have chosen Mindfulness and Embodiment as the training focus. Mindfulness and Embodiment are two strong pathways towards mental health, wellbeing, a greater self-awareness and sense of belonging.

As a result of this innovative training focus, the youth workers are expected to be enabled to apply tools and techniques encouraging self-reflection, self-worth, a sense of self-efficacy, and to foster emotional intelligence & agility among young people in order to support them in formulating their own values and be enabled to create new forms of cooperation and interaction on societal level.
Activities
The project consists of four educational activities.
Activity 1: E-learning course 1 – What is and how mindfulness and embodiment is connected to youth work

Activity 2: Training course 1 – Understanding mindfulness and embodiment as tools in youth work
Activity 3: E-learning course 2 – Creating educational activities for young people`s wellbeing and health
Activity 4: Training course 2 – Practicing mindfulness education for youth

Together those activities constitute a single educational programme designed to match the learning needs of the participants and partner organisations.

The educational approach is holistic in the sense that it focuses on:
Competence development, understood as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes, to ensure that the learning process translates into changed behaviour
Different forms of learning (cognitive, emotional and tactile) to contribute to a learning process that responds to different learning styles

The methods planned to be used during the training programme are based on non-fornal education and include, the following:

  • Organized input session to transfer knowledge on specific topics mentioned above.
  • Group work to gain awareness and knowledge of the current challenges of youth and youth work
  • Exercises and workshops to work on gaining practical experience and competences in Mindfulness and Embodiment
    Theatre exercises to present outcomes of conceptual discussions
    Creative workshops to explore alternative ways to work on the topics related with social transformation and community-building
    Role-plays to raise awareness on youth challenges at community level and in communication
    Sharing methods to explore realities and experiences
    Reflection groups to fine-tune and monitor the process
    Energizers, name games, icebreakers and team-building to cohesion the group and contribute to positive group dynamics.

The project involves a total of 24 youth educators and youth workers from Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, Spain, Germany and Italy in all project activities. The participants are supported by a project team consisting of 5 people (project coordinator, 2 trainers, project reporter, and project manager).

Profile of participants:

  • being involved in non-formal learning activities with young people at community level either as a volunteer, paid staff or freelancer;
  • good understanding of the development challenges of young people in their community;
    Basic understanding of concepts of youth empowerment, well-being and care;
  • basic experience in leading educational activities with young people, at local or international level;
  • interested in developing competences to work in the field of youth well-being and health, especially on mindfulness and embodiment;
  • readiness to explore tools from Mindfulness and Embodiment and their application in youth work settings;
  • ready to share and explore in a highly multicultural learning setting;
  • should have a communicative level of English.
    Impact
    The project will have an impact on the participants, being the direct beneficiaries at whom the competence development is aimed.

We expect the participants to develop competences in supporting young people`s health and personal well-being and contribute to young people`s empowerment as active citizens.
Thus, the impact on the participants shall be:

  • To feel empowered to act as youth educators in their communities promoting approaches to holistic health and wellbeing as central for a sustainable personal development of young people
  • To be equipped with an enriched educational understanding of how to use methods and tools of mindfulness and embodiment for youth empowerment work
  • To be enabled to design and facilitate non-formal education programmes on personal development, self-care and wellbeing to strengthen young people`s abilities to become self-confident, critically minded actors for peace and tolerance in their communities.

Project dates:

from 25 September to 2 October 2021.

Project venue:

Beautiful city surrounded mountains Lagodekhi in Georgia.

Project memories: 

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