Unburnable: Mental Well-being and Resilience for Human Rights Educators

Context

Human rights educators, activists, and youth workers across Europe navigate an increasingly unpredictable context. Shrinking civil society spaces, systemic uncertainty, and financial instability create high-stress environments that directly impact psychological well-being. This ongoing strain often leads to professional burnout, affecting both individual educators and the long-term sustainability of youth organisations and their work.

This 7-day training course offers a dedicated space for youth workers to step back, address work-related stress, build emotional resilience, and discover actionable tools to safeguard their mental well-being—and the well-being of the young people they support.

We are bringing together youth workers, trainers, and activists to step off the treadmill, address the psychological weight of our work, and build practical emotional resilience. 

It is not about standard self-care; it’s about discovering collective, realistic tools to protect our well-being and keep our organisations sustainable while learning how to better support the young people we work with.

Participants' profile

The course is designed for 25 youth workers, trainers, educators, and activists involved in running human rights educational activities with young people on a regular basis.

Target Regions: Programme Countries, Eastern Partnership (EaP) and Western Balkan countries.

This mobility is specially addressed to youth workers who are feeling the strain of the field or want to proactively build resilience, are open to sharing their experiences, and are ready to bring these practices back to their local youth groups and NGOs.

The application is open to candidates from registered Erasmus+ organisations (with OID*).

* The Organisation ID (OID) serves as a unique identifier for organisations/institutions participating in Erasmus+ projects. It is essential to obtain this code from your organisation to support your participation in the programme.

Selection of participants will be conducted by the coordination team based on the submitted application form. Previous experience, the youth work background and the potential to develop concrete follow-up will be specially taken into account.

Important Note on Scope & Purpose

This training course is an educational and peer-learning programme grounded in non-formal education methodology. It is designed for preventive care, professional self-regulation, and capacity building. Please note that this programme does not constitute clinical therapy, psychotherapy, or medical treatment, nor is it intended to diagnose or treat acute mental health conditions.

The facilitators create space for reflection, stress prevention, and tool-sharing, but they are not operating as clinical mental health professionals. Participants currently experiencing severe burnout, acute trauma, or mental health crises are strongly encouraged to seek professional therapeutic support prior to or alongside participating in non-formal training activities.