MOVE 4 WELLBEING

‘Movement is the medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states,’ - Carol Welch

Who comes first to be taken care of – you or the youngsters? Or perhaps these are two inseparable parts, a puzzle to be put together?

In this training course we will focus on the wellbeing of youth workers and consider youth work as a preventive approach for the wellbeing of young people. Besides the youth workers’ individual wellbeing, we will mainly focus on how to create emotional safety in a group and a sense of wellbeing for all participants and the whole training. The methodology we use is movement in all its varieties – to be “out of our heads and into our bodies” to literally embody this wellbeing ourselves.

Being exposed to the recent epidemics, ongoing war and daily life stress, the notion of wellbeing is becoming a more challenging part of our lives. In this challenging time and changing world we are looking for ways to help young people, but we also need to take care of the youth workers! The aim is to focus more on the preventive role of youth work. Youth work that makes the world more fair and easier to live in. We try to create a world where youth work as a whole becomes a place where people learn to regulate themselves and take care of themselves. We are trying to stir a change in youth work by stirring a change in us.

During this training course we will put the puzzle pieces of wellbeing together by prioritizing your personal wellbeing. We will identify our limits and build the boundaries where we recognize ourselves not only as youth workers but also as human beings with our own needs. By being able to take care of ourselves, we create the capacity to work with others and take care of the needs of other people. In its turn you will be able to create a safer environment for young people and put the tools and methods that work best for us into practice.

Aim:

This training aims to give space to youth workers to discover their own understanding of wellbeing through a preventive perspective in a personal sense and in the context of youth work. It will increase the awareness of sustainable wellbeing by equipping the participants with movement and embodied techniques.

Learning outcomes:

• At the end of the training participants are intended to leave with…
• More awareness of self-regulation and personal wellbeing-strategies;
• Better ability to build and maintain own boundaries professionally and personally as well as respect them;
• Better ability to address own needs with the acknowledgement and recognition of its high importance;
• New knowledge of a variety of body-oriented tools to work towards emotional safety with youngsters;
• Increased feeling of confidence in order to incorporate the learned tools and knowledge in personal and professional life.

Who is this Training for?

Participants of the training should be:

• Youth workers working regularly with young people
• Willing to dive deep into the concept wellbeing and emotional safety
• Interested in the topic of wellbeing and in learning through the body
• Being able to communicate in English
• Committed to share and apply their learned skills within their youth work
• From Erasmus+ Youth Programme Countries & Eastern Partnership countries
• We strongly invite youth workers of diverse backgrounds to apply. Every participant makes our training more unique. If you are not sure whether you should apply, don’t hesitate!

Methodology:

The methodologies will be based on non-formal education and experiential learning principles. The approach of this training is learning through embodied movement techniques. The methodology we use is movement in all its varieties – to be “out of our heads and into our bodies” to literally embody this wellbeing ourselves. The start of the training will be about creating a safer environment where everybody will be able to concentrate on one’s own wellbeing. Later in the training we will focus on wellbeing while working with a group of young people and how to create safer spaces while working with them. To achieve these different steps of wellbeing we will also create space for self-directed learning.