Wellbeing 101

Wellbeing 101 is a 7-day residential training course for youth workers, social workers and educators, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and promoted by the UK NGO Coyote Initiatives. Participants will develop the basic knowledge mental health & wellbeing, and learn practical, evidence based methods, which young people can implement in their own lives to successfully manage their wellbeing. Participants will experience the wellbeing tools themselves, learn the science behind them and plan how they can develop them for the young people they work with. Participants will leave with a toolkit full of tried and tested methods to improve both their own and young people's mental health and wellbeing.

The project will take place in Scotland, UK, in the town of Moffat, which is 50 miles south of Edinburgh and will involve 30 participants from 10 different European countries (Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Greece, and United Kingdom).

Our main aim is to develop the competences of youth workers, teachers & social workers to support young people to manage their mental health and wellbeing and develop resilience.

To reach this aim we have the following objectives:

- To equip participants with the knowledge and tools to empower young people to make positive changes in their lives to increase their mental health & wellbeing;
- To provide youth workers with a baseline understanding of anxiety & some key mental health conditions;
- To explore scientifically proven approaches and methodologies to improve mental health & wellbeing;
- To equip participants with the tools to train young people in anxiety management & sleep hygiene;- - To explore the participants’ target groups and develop suitable action & session plans for implementation of the learning outcomes from the training;
- To share best practices and increase the quality of youth work in Europe

The levels of Anxiety, Depression and other mental health issues are rising in society across Europe & beyond, especially in young people & there is not yet a corresponding rise in methods to deal with this, especially in terms of anxiety management. The effects of this are felt across all demographics of young people & particularly those with fewer opportunities.

It is clear that youth workers & youth field professionals are being left - and even expected - to deal with these issues. While the issues should be dealt with by mental health professionals, often the youth workers & are the first port of call. While we need to work towards better policies and government funding etc, we need to train those youth workers in practical, evidence based tools which are effective and easy to use.

While we should not expect youth workers to be able to deal with all of this, it is beneficial for them to be able to: a) recognise symptoms; b) have an awareness of the initial steps or 'first aid' that can be applied in a situation, c) be able to pass on evidence based tools to young people and parents to deal with some of the symptoms, and d) know who to refer them to for further support.

In this course we will provide clear information on some aspects of mental health, and introduce the concept of Trauma Informed Support, and mainly include evidence based tools which are proven to work and are relatively quick and straight forward to learn. We will also convey how the workers themselves can take care of themselves when dealing with these things.

This course will be an introduction to the topic, provide tools, and also provide an opportunity for us to share our experiences and collect effective methods from each other.