Mental Health and Youth Exchanges

Being a Good Adult for Young People

As a youth worker you can have a big impact on how young people with mental health challenges take part in international youth work activities like youth exchanges.

International youth work can have a big impact on the wellbeing of young people with fewer opportunities. It often offers feelings of belonging and accomplishment for young people. But sometimes it can feel overwhelming to them. And adults can feel uncertain how to include young people with mental health issues in international youth exchanges.

In this training you can

• explore your understanding of mental health
• familiarise yourself with useful tools and methods
• adapt the tools for your own work with your target group
• learn how to create a safer space for all the participants through the whole process
• develop your mental health competences as a youth worker
• learn how to plan and run international youth exchanges by actively involving the young people

This training does not focus on therapy, diagnoses or clinical help. As a youth worker you are not responsible for therapy, you are not trained to make diagnoses and you do not have an education in psychiatry - as a youth worker none of these is your job.

Instead, you get an understanding on how you can increase the involvement of young people with different levels of mental health challenges. You will also learn how you promote their mental wellbeing in the process.

You will also learn how to plan and run a youth exchange.

Objectives:

• to introduce tools to use and to adapt in mental health challenges
• to offer opportunities to explore the importance of psychological safety in youth exchanges
• to develop the skills to involve young people with fewer opportunities in a youth exchange process
• to provide youth workers with the basic knowledge about youth exchanges

After this training you will have a better understanding about how to authentically involve young people in the process of a youth exchange. And of course you will have increased your international network and found potential partners for future youth exchanges.

 Apply Now to Be a Better Youth Worker:

From this training you get skills that you can use in your daily work with young people.

You can apply to be a participant in this training if you are a professional or voluntary youth worker, who is regularly working directly with young people with mental health challenges.

You have a clear function in the organisation that you work with and your organisation regularly runs activities, open houses, or projects with the local or regional young people. You must be over 18 years old.

You don't have to have any previous experience within international youth work and you don't have to be a mental health specialist. In regards of both, you can be a newcomer or an experienced youth worker. 

If you are a therapist or a psychologist, you will not learn anything new in this training. Please do not take the opportunity from someone who could learn important competences for their work.

If you do not have a relevant role in a youth organisation, you do not work with groups of young people or if you are just personally interested in the topic, we will not select you as a participant.

When and where?

The training is organised in Youth Centre Piispala in Kannonkoski, Finland.

You will be accommodated in single rooms, but you may have to share some common areas in the accommodation

• Arrivals on Monday 11 March (morning)
• Working days Tuesday-Friday 12-15 March
• Departure on Saturday 16 March (afternoon)

If you want to come earlier or stay longer, you should agree about it with your National Agency. We cover accommodation and meals from Monday dinner to breakfast on Saturday. You must take care of the costs of your extra days, like on a holiday.

Small steps for a better world

In our activities we support the principle of a safer space, where no one is discriminated or bullied because of their background or person. We want you to respect the same principle.

We want to support your wellbeing too. We offer optional sessions each morning and night, when you can join relaxing moments or you can offer a meditative or active session yourself.

We want to enable the participation of people with all kinds of abilities. Our premises are accessible, we can provide sign language interpretation or adjust methodology if needed. Knowing your individual needs will help us to provide the needed support.

We also strive to make the world a little bit greener. This is why we are primarily choosing vegetarian or otherwise sustainable diets whenever possible. We also encourage you to consider travelling to Helsinki on land as much as possible.