Trees that are rooted: Nurturing young people’s inner nature

The idea of the project “Trees that are rooted”

Being youth workers, we observe how the situation among young people in the whole Europe is changing. Some young people are struggling with unemployment, many young people become inactive citizens, or fall into depression. Moreover, the big wave of refugees towards Europe the past couple of years highlights the risk for social exclusion, the human rights violation and the lack of intercultural dialogue. In addition, several reports and researches explain that youth are drawn into violent radicalization in their search for identity, a purpose and a meaningful place in society because they feel injustice and frustration about their exclusion and vulnerability. In this context, our work as youth workers becomes essential to address the situation of youth.

We decided to name our project “Trees that are rooted” with a vision to train youth workers to nurture the young people holistically. This is because we believe that young people need to be rooted firstly in themselves, secondly in their community and last in the whole world, just like the trees do.

This is why our project encloses two activities/training courses for youth workers:

The 1st training course “Trees that are rooted – Nurturing young people’s inner nature – 14-22 March 2020 in Czech Republic focuses young people’s inner nature, self-awareness and self-embracement.

The 2nd training course “Trees that are rooted - Embracing outer nature” – October/November 2020 in Cyprus. This training course advances on the solid “rooting” in the previous training and extending it into the being with others, engaging in meaningful peer relationships, belonging to the world, manifesting the gifts of the inner nature (identity) in the world.

About the first training course “Nurturing young people’s inner nature”, March, Czech Republic

WHY – Objectives of the training course

• To explore the reality of hard to reach youth and the reasons that drag them to radicalization, focusing more on their search for identity
• To enhance the understanding of youth workers regarding the developmental stages of young people, as well as the needs, opportunities and risks in each stage.
• To explore innovative theories and educational approaches that youth workers can use in order to improve their work with hard to reach young people.
• To develop their skills in working with hard to reach youth.
• To increase youth worker’s motivation and inspiration to work further with youth, especially the ones who are hard to reach and at risk of radicalization
• To develop sustainable follow-up actions targeting hard to reach young people that youth workers will implement in the period of 3 months after the training.

WHAT – Topics covered

• Ecocentric-development: understanding the reality of the young people
• Emotional intelligence: knowing and working with my own feelings
• Mindfulness: maintaining an inner peace
• Nature connection: deepening the relation with ourselves and the earth
• Self-awareness: Knowing my values
• Positive Psychology: Living a meaningful life
• Self-compassion: embracing the self

HOW – Methods

• Work with peers (we will be sharing, talking, listening, empowering)
• Self-reflection (time alone thinking, assessing, writing and planning)
• Nature based activities (being and working outside in the nature)
• Experiential learning (we will be playing, doing, testing, analyzing the experiences and listening to different perspectives)
• Daily rituals (we will repeat every day in the morning and afternoon)
• Planting trees,
• Interaction with local youth,
• Arts, theatre (creating, playing, having fun, laughing)
• Embodied and holistic learning (creating space for connecting through the body, physical state, emotions, feelings, energy, not only through the mind and thinking)

Who is it for

This training course is for you, if you:

• Are a youth worker (youth trainer, youth coach, youth leader, teacher, youth organizer, volunteer, activist, social worker, youth NGO leader, etc.),
• Resonate with the idea of the project and want to delve deeper into the topics,
• Want to put in practice the competences you acquire during the training course with young people in follow-up practice activities and with your colleagues,
• Are above 18 years old,
• Are resident in one of the partnership countries (see below),
• Are able to work in English.

What is expected from you:

Before the training: Once you are selected to participate, we will contact you in order to arrange your travel to the Czech Republic. You will search for the travel itinerary and will send us the proposal. Once we confirm you the proposed itinerary, you book your tickets. Do not book any travel tickets before we confirm you the proposed itinerary. Following this, we will offer to you a series of educational preparation that you need to do before coming to the training course. You need to be available to follow on these during the period of February-March 2020.

During the training course: your full dedication is required. Among others, we will do some planting and work with the young people from the local community. This prepares you to implement new practices in your work afterwards in your country. J

After you return back home: you will practice what you learnt and implement a follow-up activity among young people. You also share your knowledge with your colleagues/friends/peers in your organization and beyond.

How to apply

You can apply following this link. 

https://forms.gle/3kxRcaGweLTwzaV39

We are looking forward to have you with us!