From Separation to Connection (Environ)mental health in youth work

The aim of the project is to provide more awareness and tools to improve both mental health and ‘planetary’/ environmental health.

The objectives of our project are to support youth workers to:

• Give insight into unhealthy forms of separation with self, others and nature and methods to improve inter-personal interaction, to improve mental health in themselves and others;
• Explore nature-based ways to restore a healthy connection with the natural world and find opportunities to live more sustainable lives aligned with the capacity of nature;
• Build a common future vision, their future path within it and identify first steps to include new insights from the course in youth work;
• Create a network of like-minded youth workers who want to improve (environ)mental health, so they can exchange best practices, learn from each other and cooperate and increase their impact.

The course will have the following themes:

Day 1 “From Separation to Connection”

Day 2 “Mental Health”

Day 3 “Resilience”

Day 4 “Deep Listening”

Day 5 “Reconnecting to Nature”

Day 6 “Heart-Head-Hands for Future Plans”

Day 7 “Looking Back & Forward”

It is crucial to care for both ourselves and nature simultaneously. The two support each other. A connection with nature creates resilience for everyday life and gives new motivation and perspectives for more resilient sustainable ways of living.

With this project we want to explore the separation and move to re-connection, with psychological, personal, collective and practical approaches, to become healthier as a person and as a community. We’ll draw from Gestalt Therapy, Deep Ecology and Buddhism.