Project dates: 29th of July – 7th of August 2019
Project place: Yerevan, Armenia
Deadline for applying: 27th of June
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Do you work under stress while addressing the needs of vulnerable young people in your community? Is your organization trying to reach young people in the communities that many other services do not reach? Do you have the passion and dedication to make the lives of young people better and healthier? Doing all this, do you find time to think and care about yourself?
Reflecting upon the last years of our extensive work with vulnerable and marginalized youth, we have often found ourselves anxious, tired, stressed and burned out. Weather working professionally or on a voluntary basis, we take our work very close to our hearts and try to find time for everything and everyone but rarely for ourselves.
Sounds familiar, right? Working with vulnerable young people, youth with fewer opportunities and young people from very different social and cultural backgrounds is demanding, requires an individual approach, empathetic communication, a caring attitude and a very high degree of responsibility. As youth workers we also often undervalued, underpaid and work in stressful environments under high pressure.
This is exactly why, we, Armenian Progressive Youth NGO from Armenia and Train to Future from Sweden, have developed this project, feeling a strong need and desire among our partner organizations to get introduced to self-care practices and try to apply those back in our organizations, work and lives.
PURPOSE OF THE TRAINING COURSE
Through an 8-day we aim to support 36 youth workers from the EU and non-EU countries to identify ways to prevent and reduce stress as well as develop selfcare practices and self-awareness through practicing yoga and meditation. Through incorporating yoga and meditation as self-care practices into their daily routine, they will be better equipped to identify and address the needs of the young people they work with in their communities.
OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING COURSE
- Supporting 36 youth workers, professionals, community leaders and trainers to learn and identify activities and practices that can support their well-being, and help them develop healthy behavior patterns when responding to challenging work situations;
- Identifying the principal causes of stress and burn-out;
- Defining self-care and self-awareness, and explaining how they can support and enhance the youth workers when they experience pressure or stress in their work;
- Creating a safe space in which participants feel comfortable being the receivers of support and sharing their needs and challenges;
- Integrating and sustaining yoga, meditation and other self-care practices in the daily routines of our participants, and learning to practice relaxation and mindfulness techniques;
- Defining what self-care and self-awareness mean and explaining how they can support and enhance the youth workers when they experience pressure or stress in their work;
- Developing a personal self-care plan which will include concrete strategies on how to reduce and manage stress, how to enhance health in order to maintain well-being and professionalism;
- Exploring how yoga, meditation and self-care practices can be used in youth work in general and in our work with vulnerable youth and young people with fewer opportunities in particular;
- Strengthening the partnership between the organizations involved, improving the competences of participants and the quality of joint projects.
PARTICIPANTS’ PROFILE
- Age over 18;
- Experienced youth workers;
- Fluent in English;
- Available for the whole duration of the training course;
- Willing to share their experience with CID.
ACCOMMODATION and FINANCES:
All costs related to accommodation and food will be covered by the hosting organization.
Travel costs will be reimbursed up to 275 euros according to the rules and conditions of Erasmus+ programme. Visa costs will also be covered.
PARTICIPATION FEE: 40 EUR
SENDING FEE: 500 MKD