UNCOVER - Emotional Wellbeing Through Art and Creativity

Lack of interest and motivation. General numbness. Oversensitivity. Inability to control emotions. Inability to feel. Have you noticed this in the youth you work with? Maybe in yourself? 

The aim of UNCOVER is to increase youth workers’ competences to support the emotional well-being of young people through creative methods.

We invite people working with youth to explore the range of emotions and learn about how to read and face them. Through connecting with emotions, we will explore how we foster the emotional well-being of ourselves and the young people we work with.

Why should you participate?

We do not dedicate enough time to understand and name emotions in daily life. Busy work, social media, and society push us to focus on fast-food performances by numbing what we feel instead of taking time to process and reflect on what we experience. 

UNCOVER is a journey to understand the complexity of emotions and to communicate them through creativity and art methods. The course provides theoretical input on emotions, practical workshops, and reflection sessions about emotional wellbeing. The training course is designed to provide participants with hands-on experience that can be implemented in their daily work with youth.

Based on a non-formal education approach we will work with visual and performative arts, embodiment, and creative writing methods to reach our objectives.

Objectives:

• To explore the relationship between emotions and creative/artistic methods and their influence on well-being.
• To bridge the experiences and theories of emotional wellbeing  to participants’  local realities in youth work.
• To develop competences (knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviours) regarding emotional wellbeing within youth work.

Target group:

The invitation to apply to this training course is for you if you are:

• professionally and/or voluntary working directly with young people on a regular basis (youth workers, social workers, mentors, support persons etc.);
• at least 18 years old;
• comfortable to communicate and learn in English;
• able to participate fully in all project days;
• willing  to start using what you learn in the training in your everyday work.

Venue & Travel

The training course will be held in Balestrand, a lovely art village nestled by the main Sognefjord nicknamed the King of the Fjords, is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Here you will find high mountains, deep fjords and peace and quiet.This setting will enable deep reflection, foster general well-being, and inspire participants to appreciate the role of nature in impacting emotional well-being.The training course will be held in the apple farm called Ciderhuset and the participants will be accommodated in Balestrand Hotel. It's worth mentioning that Balestrand is not so close to international airports, so participants should be ready for a long journey.

Team of Trainers:

The training will be led by Tuba Ardic (Norway-Turkey), Svenja Urke (Germany), Linda Ulāne (Latvia), and Anna Maria Avella (Italy).

Flow of the Course (16.-22. April 2024)

Arrival day: 16.04.2024.

DAY 1: Landing, getting to know each other and the youth work we do, building the group, and creating a safe learning space.

DAY 2: Explore the concepts and theories of emotions, emotional wellbeing, and how these relate to mental health in youth work.

DAY 3 and 4: Workshops: Explore emotions through creativity and art methods for connection, experience, extracting and applying to reality in youth work.

DAY 5: Evaluation, networking, and closure.

Departure day: 22.04.2024.

This training course is organised within Mental Health in Youth Work, which is a long term cooperation between National Agencies in Erasmus+ with the aim to put mental health higher on the youth work agenda.