Stories by Participants:
CPR: Cultivating a Positive and Resilient Mental Health Environment in the
European Youth Sector
(24/09/2023-01/10/2023) Zadar, Croatia
An article by Angeliki Kralli and Kalliope Drosopoulou
From the 24th of September until the 1st of October 2023, alongside youth workers from Spain, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic, we took part in a training course which was held in Zadar, Croatia. The topic of this project was about mental health and well-being.
The aim of this training course was to teach us (youth workers) about promoting mental health, using non-formal education methods and also how to develop our skills in order to support the mental well-being of young people.
During this course, our trainers used two main teaching methods which were the theory and some activities. As it is an integral part in every training, they had prepared a number of presentations so that we will be able to understand firstly all the basic concepts in theory. After that, there was always a discussion and the participants who wanted, could share their opinions or personal examples that were related to the topics. Furthermore, during these days, we had to do a number of different activities so that we could learn some topics through experiential learning, additionally to the theoretical part. For example, there was a simulation of a peer support group which was a really good opportunity for us to see how it works. We also tried yoga and meditation as relaxation techniques which was also something new for most of us. Finally, we got to know how expressive art therapy works and did some practice on it.
In conclusion, by the end of this project, we could definitely say that we increased our knowledge on how to support young people that struggle with mental issues and how to encourage them to seek for professional help if needed. We learned some simple but important tools that can help in promoting their mental health and finally, we understood the key role that we, as youth workers, have, in these situations.
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