“Belong to yourself”

“True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” (Brene Brown)

Young people often feel tension between being themselves and belonging successfully to different communities or different groups. Finding balance between being authentic and accepted by your peers, colleagues, partners can be challenging and stressful in teenage years and adolescence. Youth work setting can be a supportive environment in accompanying young people on their journey of discovering the answers to the question: Who am I?, What is my purpose?, Where is my place in this world? and How do I feel along the way?

Youth workers can support young people through different social and emotional educational activities in exploring their inner compass, becoming more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and help them become more emotionally intelligent in assessing themselves with confidence. This training course aims to support youth educators in creating an environment and activities that offer opportunities for raising the self-awareness of young people so they can know themselves, be themselves and belong authentically to the groups of their choice. 

Objectives:

• to understand youth work setting as the opportunity for nurturing a positive approach to young people’s mental health;
• to explore different realities of existing programmes supporting identity development and healthy transition to adulthood;
• to explore and understand the challenges young people face in the contemporary world in combination with developmental crises and social, educational, emotional, relational and professional expectations;
• to learn how to explore and reflect on different aspects of identity (self-image); 
• to be able to create environment and opportunities for young people to explore their strengths and weaknesses in a safe way; 
• to practise empathic communication in youth work and positive feedback to support self-esteem of young people;
• to raise the ability how to build a supportive and encouraging environment and trustful relationships with a young person; 
• to explore personal dilemmas when dealing with issues concerning development of young people and their well-being;
• to get to know cognitive strategies for lowering negative self-talk and practice self-compassion.