<< Objectives >>Youth in contemporary societies find it difficult to explore and remain in their true authentic nature. Dominant systems are creating static structures for people to focus mainly on cognitive skills and materialistic & individualistic expressions of success. In most current educational environments young people are shaped towards fitting into this system. The social life in the modern world is based on competition and hierarchy thus the youngsters’ identity, beliefs, relationships and lifestyles are under stress and pressured in order to fit into these patterns. As a result, the number of mental health issues among young people such as depression, anxiety, attention-deficit, loneliness is rising. Additionally, many young people are scared about social interactions, their future, the health and survival of the planet. We believe that non-formal educational environments have the potential to support young people in becoming more conscious, resilient and empowered in taking actions towards protecting their wellbeing and the planet. By creating a series of activities that address mindful and healthy lifestyle, strengthens mind-body-emotions interconnectedness, and brings us back to the nature, we aim to support youth workers in their personal and professional development.Young people need empowerment and facilitation by youth workers who are highly skilled in the field of healthy lifestyle, mindfulness, emotional intelligence. It is of essential importance to inspire and integrate youngsters with their emotional and mental health issues in the social life of modern society, as well as to navigate them in overcoming the challenges in personal and social context. The proposed training course aims to gather 27 youth workers from 8 countries with experience of work in the field of personal and social integration of young people. The working team will create a space and conditions where the gain of basic tools of mindfulness will be awaiting participants of the “reCONNECT YOUth – Mindfulness tools in youth work” programme.Taking into account the above mentioned context, the specific objectives of the proposed TC are:-To equip youth workers and leaders from Program and EECA Partner countries with the competencies to foster deeper self-reflection and self-expression activities to be used with their target groups-To promote healthy and environmentally conscious behavior among participants with the use of mindfulness and nature-based methods to be afterwards applied in their workplaces-To strengthen body-mind-emotion interconnectedness as a holistic approach of health and wellbeing by giving participants stress-resistance and emotional intelligence tools -To form a network among like-minded organisations and develop follow-up projects within the project topic<< Implementation >>“reCONNECT YOUth - Mindfulness tools in youth work” training course aims to gather 27 participants from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia to acquire skills and tools of mindful living to overcome everyday stressful situations, to hold an effective communication, to become more environmentally conscious. This project has one main activity which is a training course to be hosted on 19.10 - 28.10.2022 (including 2 days for travel, in total 10 days) in Stepanavan, Armenia.We will gather to discuss, find and learn ways of mindful and healthy living through reconnecting with nature, with each other and with ourselves. We will use such tools as outdoor physical activities, body work, dance movement, human library, meditations, deep reflections, simulation exercises, healthy nutrition and conscious consumers' approach to find our real identities, to express our hidden potential, to understand other cultures and learn peaceful communication, to overcome stressful situations, become healthy and mindful human beings. And as a result to enreach our youth work tool box with new empowering methods.The methodological framework of the TC is the one of non-formal education, learner-centered and peer to peer learning approach with combination of frontal inputs, discussions and exercises. To ensure that participants make the best use of their skills, abilities and knowledge, all the sessions are designed in a way to encourage their active participation and provide them with an opportunity to share the knowledge and skills they have or are interested within the topic of the project.This training course is targeted at youth workers and young leaders who are workers, members or volunteers of community and youth organisations. They are interested in self-development through mindfulness, meditation, connection to nature, environmentally conscious way of living with the holistic approach of body-mind emotion interconnectedness. Participants are aged 18+ and are residents in an eligible ERASMUS+ country.All the participating youth workers are active members of their organisations who want to bring new experiences, knowledge and opportunities to their communities and share with other colleagues and youngsters to empower them. Some of them already have experience in participation and management of international mobility projects, however we are open also for newcomers. The partner organisations have ensured gender balance in their groups, aiming at a balanced number of male and female participants with equal motivation and accessibility.We encouraged and involved participants with fewer opportunities facing geographical, cultural and economic obstacles. Participants who have cultural difficulties are descendants from immigrant or refugee families either belong to a national or ethnic minority, those with economic obstacles are with low standard of living, low income, dependence on social welfare system, and participants with geographical obstacles come from rural areas borderline villages limited by their territorial conditions for travelling and having an access for international opportunities.<< Results >>The proposed training course will have an impact on participants from several aspects. Firstly it will have an impact on participants’ personal and professional development leading to the self-empowerment as it will stimulate their self-reflection and self-awareness capacities. They will get closely acquainted with mindfulness and meditation as a strong tool for combating everyday stress that causes mental health issues. Another impact will be participants’ increased sensitivity towards nature and promotion to become more environmentally conscious. They will raise their awareness towards connection to nature as the most organic state of humans even while living in the cities and being distracted with technological & urban development. As well as participants will increase their intercultural sensitivity, which in its turn will help them to develop a more open, tolerant attitude towards others and to communicate with the peers from other cultures in a more effective and respective way.With the support of their sending organisations participants will prepare info sessions and workshops promoting the topic of this training course, experience gained in Armenia and follow up projects engaging stakeholders in the field in their countries. Thus, it will attract more people's attention on caring about mental health and mindfulness in youth work through embodied educational methods strengthening the connection with oneself, with others and with nature in a holistic way. Moreover, during the project study visits and best cases’ sharing organised with the local organisations and community in Armenia will attract more local people to the topic and thus to get in touch with different cultures and information/possibilities of participating in Erasmus + Programmes.As well as such crucial issues as integration of youth with fewer opportunities in the society are raised through this training course. This is one of the ongoing challenges in the whole of Europe. Solution of this kind of issues through focusing on youth personal development and social inclusion possibilities empowerment within the framework of international projects will have a significant positive impact on the youth work, as it will raise their awareness on the topic, self-esteem, self-empowerment as well as will possibly encourage their interest to actively participate in different aspects of intercultural communication.

'Flourishing youth, positive psychology in youth work' was an international training course on positive psychology (PP), using non-formal methodology for youth workers to promote wellbeing and personal development of youngsters. The course improve the quality of competences of youth workers. PP offers an effective framework to promote a sustainable development for flourishing and mental health of youngsters. The course gathered a group of 26 youth workers from 7 different partnering organizations countries ( Italy, United Kingdom (Wales), Spain, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and the Netherlands) that are dealing with promotion of personal development of youth through the use of non-formal education. Participants were not only diverse from a geographical and cultural perspective, but also regarding their aims and target groups. The project took place from the 25th until the 30th of September 2017 in Sale San Giovanni in Italy and was facilitated by a team of experienced trainers in the field of PP. The course offered the participants an experience and practice with PP and provided an opportunities for youth workers to enhance their competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to create stimulating circumstances that promote personal development and wellbeing of their youth. There was a specific focus on the practical implementation of the acquired competences. During the course, participants were encouraged and facilitated to develop their own customized programs within the PP framework which they can use in their daily youth work in their own organization and to develop new collaborations with other participating organizations on a European level. It also offered the participants an opportunity to improve the quality of their youth work by learning from the experiences of different European cultures in youth work and different ways to encourage the personal development and active participation of the youth they work with. Objectives of the project were: - To develop participants' competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) and methodologies to improve the quality of their youth work; - To provide participants with tools and exercises to implement the elements of positive psychology in their youth work; - To increase a broader understanding among participants on the practices of youth work across Europe and increase the level of understanding of intercultural differences in this sector.- To establish and provide participants with a network opportunity to increase the internationalization of their youth work (within the framework of Erasmus+). Participants came prepared through an e-learning assignment, to ensure a common basic level at the start of the course. During the course the participants were facilitated in their experiential learning process through the use of non-formal educational methods such as discussions, simulations, work in small groups, world cafe. The participants always first experienced the topics through exercises, to ensure an understanding of the topic on an intuitive level. Next participants were taught how to implement the elements of PP and learned to design high quality PP-projects that will stimulate personal growth of youth. The course empowered the youth workers and gave them the self-esteem to be able to implement the elements of PP into the youth work of their organizations. By means of following this course, the participants, and their organizations are now able to design good quality projects to promote personal development that will enhance the well-being of their target groups. The course also increased the level of internationalization of youth work of the organizations by designing new cooperations for the future.

"<< Objectives >>Through ""Peaceful Warriors"" we want to provide participating youth workers with a solid set of knowledge and skills that will better prepare them in understanding, predicting and preventing manifestations and escalations of violence, abuse and conflict in their work with young people. Through the main activity of the project, a training course, we will invite participants to discover, know, experience and verify a holistic and integrated dimension, applied to socio-educational work. An approach where the cognitive, emotional and practical aspects complement and support each other.The objectives of the project are:• Prepare 25 professional youth workers with a coherent set of skills to perceive, discern and counter the manifestation of violent or harmful acts, developed by passive and / or aggressive behavioral patterns among their young people.• Transfer in the work of the target group a series of preventive elements towards the occurrence of violent acts and unhealthy behavior towards oneself and others;• Increase the level of skill and effectiveness of the target group regarding the application of holistic facilitation in working with young people;• To develop a transnational structure of youth workers inspired and intrigued to develop international actions that address the concept of violence among young people and the situations of psychological and emotional distress caused by the pandemic.The project aims to develop a range of skills that allow youth workers to facilitate their work with young people from different backgrounds: rural areas, ethnic and religious minorities, unemployed or in poverty, victims of bullying or violence, precarious family background. We know from experience that the contexts listed above are often intertwined and many young people fall into more than one of these disadvantaged and at-risk categories at the same time. A characteristic common to all these categories is the friction, psychological and / or emotional, generated by the discomfort of one's own context, which inevitably becomes one of the triggers of anger and violence that can find an outlet both towards others and towards oneself.The contents of the training course work on this matrix and phenomenology common to the different contexts, addressing them from a human and holistic point of view even before a sociological or political one, and therefore with a universal value. This aspect guarantees a high level of transferability of the skills learned, even in very different areas and target groups, allowing participants to use the learning outcomes in any context they will consider.<< Implementation >>The main activity of the project is an 7 days training course, which will involve 28 socio-educational operators from Italy, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Latvia, France, Greece and Spain. The project is designed for youth workers who are members of partner organizations and / or who are actively involved in activities with young people.As a selection criterion there is their ability to understand, assimilate, transmit and disseminate the learning outcomes of TC, as well as their commitment to transfer the results into their work. Participants must be directly involved with groups of young people, or in any case have managerial and organizational tasks related to activities aimed at young people.Preferably employees, active volunteers or collaborators of the partners, it isessential that they are motivated to continue working in this field with perspective and continuity. A standard and basic selection criterion is that each participant has expressed, in the application phase, their need and interest in cultivating an understanding of the phenomena of violence and discomfort among young people and how to deal with interpersonal conflicts.By involving these participants in an eight-day training course, we can meet the needs for updating and renewing the skills of partner organizations.Once the project is approved, the TC preparation phase will include further analysis of the participants' needs, conducted in collaboration with all partner organizations through the Needs Assessment Questionnaire. The program will be tailored to the goals and professional needs of the participants, also keeping in mind the interests and plans of their organizations. The program includes regular reflection and various evaluation activities that will allow us to maintain or adjust the program to match the needs of the participants throughout the course.<< Results >>RESULTSThe main intangible results of TC are the learning outcomes, that is the skills acquired to prevent and counter the emergence of violent attitudes and acts when working with groups of young people. The main tangible result used for dissemination, enhancement and communication, is a toolbox for the use of holistic facilitation as a tool for emergence, prevention and reduction of conflicts, in and among young people. The guide will be developed by the project team based on the content of the sessions, the insights and reflections provided by the participants and the trainers' observations during the sessions. The guide will be delivered within one month of the TC. The second tangible result will be the presentation video of the Peaceful Warriors training (4 min. Approx.).We will make this presentation video with sequences from the training course, interviews with trainers and participants, and it will be uploaded to Youtube and distributed on Facebook, websites, online platforms, and of course sent to our partners for dissemination through their channels.We expect to reach at least 1000 views during the project period. The objectives of the video and its diffusion are to create interest in the project, its themes and proposals, towards E + mobilities and towards the activities of Teatro invisibile.IMPACTThe project is designed to create an impact on the participants in a multifaceted way, as the learning process is based on a varied methodology.Benefits for participants:- A better understanding of how passive, apathetic, violent behavior patterns can be observed in a group;- A deeper understanding of the diversity of non-formal education (NFL) methods and how these can be combined to create greater impact when working with mixed groups;- Greater satisfaction in youth work thanks to the acquisition of a preventive approach to violence and unhealthy behavior;- Increased interest in researching new NFL methods that could be used to deal with conflict and aggressive behavioral patterns;- Greater motivation in the development of new local and international initiatives on issues related to violence;- A greater preference for remaining active in youth work by observing the impact that could be created among the beneficiaries;- Greater involvement in increasing the quality of work with young people;- Develop an unconscious approach to incorporating a preventive approach to violence in their current work;- Transfer of attention to violent behavioral patterns even outside the role of youth worker, in interactions with other people;- Extensive network of international contacts, new conditions for the development of other international projects;- Permanent acquisition of awareness in the perception of the signs of violent acts in the gestures, words, body language of other people, etc.We will measure this impact within two months of the end of the TC through two actions:- asking participants to fill in an evaluation questionnaire that covers multiple aspects: follow-up actions, plan dissemination, evaluation of the TC experience.- in the virtual phase (collective videoconference and post on the facebook group) in which we will continue to probe the experience of the participants and to support them in the integration of all the learning outcomes."

"'Game of Wellness' was a 7-day training course which was the third edition of a training course, that we have successfully organized in December 2016 and July 2017. The previous editions started many fruitful cooperation between us and our partnering organisations and among participants themselves and it is also upon a request of the involved institutions and individuals, that we have developed the topic further and developed the third edition. The primary aim of the project/training course was to introduce and explore concept of “wellness” and ""gamification"" with emphasis on well-being of a diverse community. The secondary aim was to support and facilitate specific project development in this field. The training course focused both on the personal and professional development of our participants who learnt and experienced how the concepts of games and wellness empower both themselves and the young people and communities they are working with. The shared wish was to support the participants in finding ways towards healthier and more sustainable lifestyle and working style in order to make creative use of their resources, both locally and internationally. The training course hosted 28 participants from 11 countries and partner organisations, plus 3 trainers (total number of participants: 31 people) and happened in December 2018 in Kaprálův mlýn, ecological centre near Brno, Czech Republic.There were following objectives defined:- to introduce and explore concepts of wellness and principles of gamification in the context of community youthwork; - to create space for professionals to practice and refresh their trainers skills and to share their best practices and receive feedback;- to introduce practical online and offline tools and activities that promote healthy living, community building, conflict resolution and inclusion across diverse groups;- to empower youth workers to develop and organize programs that support sustainable, healthy and joyful living in their communities and organisations;- to facilitate constructive development of realistic project ideas and support formation of new partnerships. The course was fully based on the methods of non-formal education, which fed and encouraged the active participation and an atmosphere of acceptance, trust, openness and non-judgment within the working group. We worked small working groups, which encouraged more reflection, feedback and self-directed learning, as well as the inclusion and the free expression of all participants and minimized the problems caused by the lack of a common language. The course had a strong component based on the sharing of experiences, best practices, opinions, especially in the experiential part when participants prepared specific blocks of program; this allowed participants to learn about themselves and from others through the dynamics of cooperative learning, to know each other and to create a strong network of contacts between organizations and groups involved in working with young people."

Approximately two-thirds of young people will have been exposed to a traumatic event by the time they turn 16. Experiencing a traumatic event can potentially affect both their current and future mental health. Unfortunately, traumas are experienced in different forms, domestic violence, loss of a family member, illness within close family members, separation and divorce of parents among other things. Trauma, therefore, occurs when a young person witnesses or experiences overwhelming negative experiences. One of the more daunting aspects when working with young people who have faced trauma is that the sensory information and experiences related to the traumatic memory do not dissipate as time goes on; in fact, the trauma continues to be re-experienced. A primary obstacle in treating these recurring traumatic memories is that young people often experience difficulties verbalizing and expressing their trauma(s). Because the visual and sensational nature of traumatic memories stored in the brain is often unable to be fully translated into a verbal narrative, there is substantial neuro-biological and clinical psychological evidence in favour of utilizing the expressive/creative arts therapies for processing trauma. Indeed, recent research suggests that arts-based methods are emerging as the more effective for young people suffering from trauma as opposed to more traditional verbal-based methods.All three participating organisation have shared this views and decided to pool their respective expertise and experts to create SPARK; a project that will be using forms of arts-based methods to create space where young people dealing with trauma can express themselves using alternative forms of communication. In this project three different forms of arts expression will be used, drama, art and music (somatic). The participant organisations, based on similar needs-analysis drew up three main objectives that would like to reach through this project:1.To create new methods through which the young people receiving the service from the partner organizations will benefit from. All the young people who receive support from the partner organizations are considered as vulnerable due to the difficult events experienced in their lives. The young people without proper support and space where they can express themselves might lead a life with uncertainties,2.Through the use of arts, enable young people to use tactile materials to create symbols and images, bypassing the need for verbal language, and allowing for a better understanding of their emotions through the development of a visual vocabulary,3.Through the arts therapy tools learnt through this project, key workers will acquire the ability to help young people heal from trauma in ways that words alone cannot.At least 21 youth workers/ leaders and 60 young people between the ages of 13- 16 with fewer opportunities will be involved in the 5 phases of the project which includes 3 transnational meetings, 3 multiplier events, 4 intellectual outputs and 3 training activities. These activities will ensure that the project objectives are achieved. Of particular importance are the training activities as they will enable the youth workers/leaders through purposely designed sessions and workshops using non-formal methods of education help young people choose their preferred method of expression, acquire new tools to work better with young people and create new integrated methodologies based on art, drama and music which will result in 144 new tools. The training activities will also be the spur that will allow us to achieve our targets in the intellectual outputs, that is, the creation of drama, art and music based sessions as well as the compilation of this sessions in a toolkit to be disseminated with other key stakeholders.All the activities foreseen will also give us the opportunity, by the end of the project, to achieve the following foreseen impacts and results;- Young people able to process their trauma and express themselves,- Young people can choose their preferred method of expression,- Young people supported through a multidisciplinary team (youth workers/leaders and therapists), - Youth workers will acquire new tools to work better with young people, - Youth workers will create new integrated methodologies based on art, drama and music,- Youth workers to understand better the individualized needs of the young people working with,- Youth workers to increase their motivation and energy,- An increase in the capacity of the organization, - Organizations increase their effectiveness when working with young people who have experienced trauma,- Organizations can reach more young people in need of their service and - All the tools created will be disseminated so that other organizations and youth workers can use the tools in their environment.