TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Filip Kňažek
With the Stay Sane training course we were targeting the topics of mental health - especially stress, depression, anxiety and prevention of occupational burnout syndrome - which all are worldwide on a rapid rise and together with self-harm and suicide are in top ten causes of death and disability-adjusted life years in high-income as well as low-income countries. . By using the methods and techniques coming from self-development, mindfulness, acceptance of emotions, awareness of behavioral patterns and use of communication techniques in our lives we wanted to help youth workers fight and work effectively with their mental health problems, in order to stay sane. Focusing on the present and using these tools the youth workers were able to first work on themselves and then apply these techniques in their work with communities and their organizations on national and international level.
The need to bring awareness to these issues was and is even bigger nowadays when the world suffers in lock down and very insecure times under almost 2-year long global pandemic covid-19. It is a new period where people are many times isolated and need to deal with hardships separated from society. Techniques we shared with our participants are applicable in any stressful situation and can help them get over hardships in their professional and personal life in order to preserve their mental health. This ultimately strengthens them as an individuals, their empathy and motivates them to be more compassionate and inclusive members of society.
Objectives of the training course were:
Share NVC techniques (4 steps, iceberg) for meaningful communication
Share Mindfulness techniques (principles, meditations) for mental health
Share NLP techniques for self-awareness and development
Share body-movement techniques as a tool for mental health
Show importance of emotions and their influence in life
Enhance empathy in communication and cooperation with people from different environments
Bring awareness to importance of empathy in education, communication
Understand the connection between thoughts, words, feelings, emotions and behaviour
Understand how our mind operates, how it’s influenced and how we can control it
Enhance tolerance, diversity and uniqueness of each and every human being
Share coaching techniques so the participants can pass on everything they learnt
Create a booklet which will be a result of the cooperation of the participants
Implement all above mentioned back in their home country
Encourage international cooperation, networking and knowledge
The participants for Stay Sane were youth workers, youth leaders, teachers and active volunteers with different backgrounds, some of them working for/ being part of our partner organisations. Their professions included: assistance for artists with multiple handicaps, teacher, journalist, Front End Web developer, mechatronic technician, mentor, actress, youth worker, trainers, community manager, project coordinator, school preventist. Some of them still studied different fields such as human rights, graphic design, photography, economy, psychology, philosophy, international cultural and medicine. The age of our participants was between 20-38 years. We had 8 partner organisations in the project, altogether 27 participants + 3 organisers. From these 9 males and 21 females. There were supposed to be 3 participants per country, but due to drop outs and covid final numbers of participants per country were as follows (see number in brackets) - Serbia (3), Germany (5), Portugal (3), Slovakia (3), Greece (3), Romania (2), Italy (5) and Czech Republic (3). All activities involved all participants coming from the partner organisation equally.
we used many different methods that are based on learning through action, non-formal education and group work on spot. We used brainstorming, constructive discussions, theatre and role-plays, feedback (also used in phase 4), team building activities, group dynamics, movements, usage of other senses (apart from sight), non-verbal communication, a lot of personal reflection, group reflection and interaction with local people.
Participants experienced working with the whole group of 30 people, in smaller groups (3 - 6ppl), pairs or individually. Through the activities, we challenged the participants to come out of their comfort zones and face their own issues and emotions. All activities were formed based on personal experience of the trainers, different psychological research, official non-formal methodologies and expert opinions. To ensure the effectivity of the learning objectives we used the Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge (we will give facts important for the topics), comprehension (the participants will test the knowledge through the activities), application (the participants will be able to apply the knowledge in the open space day when they will combine it with their skills), analysis (analysis will take place when participants will be preparing their home country follow-up activities), synthesis (the participants will apply everything learnt until this point and they will create and facilitate their home country follow-ups), evaluation.
The competences acquired on our training course are focused on mental health, non-violent communication, emotional intelligence, present moment (mindfulness) and self-coaching. Through NLP the participants learned how the mind works and how we can work with it. With NVC participants were given techniques for empathic and meaningful communication which was supported by coaching techniques to support their work with youth. Through mindfulness we shared meditation and mental health practices which the participants can use in their everyday life and work to support themselves, and the youth they work with, to manage stressful situations, live in the present moment and manage their emotions.
The participants mainly acquired following skills and knowledge:
How to empathically create rapport with youth
How to embody, identify and acknowledge emotions, work with them and do not suppress them
How to recognize youth needs and problems
Coach youth through these issues
Mental health tools (meditation, breathing, stress management and self-reflection techniques) to prevent burnout and lessen stress factors in their professions as well as share these tools with youth
The participants tried all of the techniques mentioned above and in objectives on themselves during the training course. They also learnt how to implement these techniques in their everyday life, their work and their communities. They are able and motivated to share their knowledge with their colleagues in their home associations and communities. They have developed competencies in the area of youth empowerment and non-formal education.
The hosting and applicant organization ADEL Slovakia strengthened its position on the local level. It raised awareness of the local community about Erasmus +, international opportunities, and work of youth NGOs across Europe. It supported international cross-culture conversation.
ADEL Slovakia and gained new experiences in implementing international training courses and created new connections and networks in the personal and professional means.
Partner organizations had a unique chance for networking and making new connections with each other and discuss ideas and partnerships for future projects. They developed a better understanding of organising training courses in Slovakia and on our way of doing so. New training methods and ideas for future projects were established. Through the project booklet all involved organizations and participants have access to new techniques and tools for youth work.
organiser, main trainer, project coordinator and writer