Stop. Reflect. Do Better!

The idea

With the Stop. Reflect. Do Better project we invited you to stop for a moment, and dedicate time to your capacity and well-being as youth workers, coordinators, managers, educators, and peace activists! 

The overall project aim was to:

• support the well-being of professionals, youth workers, coordinators, and peace activists,
• build further their competences and capacities of the organisations in providing quality voluntary and educational activities for young people.

Why did we do it?

• our lives as peace activists and youth workers are full of tasks and the to-do list is never-ending, with piles of unexpected challenges or complications,
• we know that moments of rest and reflection are needed but they often seem to be an unrealistic luxury,
• as organisations, we needed to find a new way to effectively and positively deal with the new reality and to support the well-being and flourishing of our teams,
• we wanted to find our own balance in order to be always capable of providing quality youth work to help and support young people.

We were a partnership of 10 organisations: SCI Poland (leader), CVS Bulgaria, SCI Catalunya, SCI Germany, Útilapu Hungary, VSI Ireland, SCI Italy, CID North Macedonia, Para Onde? Portugal and Zavod Voluntariat – SCI Slovenia.

The activities

During our project, we:

• learnt and applied good mechanisms of taking care of the mental health and well-being of our youth workers,
• built further their competences in working with volunteers, young people, and local communities in times of constant change.

The project had 8 main components:

1. Set-up phase (9.2023-1.2024)

2. Training Course: “Empowering Youth Workers: Building Resilience and Managing Stress” (22-29.02.2024)
International training course with 33 participants from 10 countries which took place in Poznań, Poland. Key aspects: well-being, happiness, how to deal with stress, mindfulness, and a survival kit for VUCA times.

3. Webinars on well-being (3-5.2024)
Between March and May 2024, we organised 3 webinars supporting the youth worker’s well-being. The topics were: “Stress Management” (13.04.2024), “Emotional Self-Care” (11.04.2024) and “Positive Psychology Tools for Well-Being” (22.05.2024).

4. Training Course: “Mindful Youth Work: Cultivating Well-Being in Yourself and Others” (9-16.05.2024)
The second international training course which took place in Poznań, Poland. Key aspects: quality youth work, nonviolent communication, emotional and social intelligence, inclusion and diversity.

5. Follow-up local actions (3-9.2024)
Practising the learning moments in national teams, organising and running activities on a local level under our mentoring.

6. Publishing “My Well-Being Kit” (11.2024)
Reflection cards to support the inner peace and mental health of youth workers and the groups they work with. Scroll down for more details!

7. Dissemination (3-11.2024)
Spreading tangible project results (e.g. practices, workshop scenarios) and My Well-Being Kit across our countries and beyond, e.g. through an open webinar entitled “Creating Life Balance: A Journey with ‘My Well-Being Kit’’ on 25.11.2024.

8. Evaluation (11.2024)

Our training courses

“Mindful Youth Work: Cultivating Well-Being
in Yourself and Others”
9-16 May 2024
Poznań, Poland

At the training course, 30 youth workers, coordinators and peace activists:
• enlarged knowledge about mental health and well-being,
• improved self-regulation and relationship management,
• acquired conflict resolution skills,
• exchanged ideas, good practices, inspirations, and shared resources,
• planned follow-up actions for their local communities.

My Well-Being Kit

As a project result, in autumn 2024 we published pocket-size cards called “My Well-Being Kit”.
My Well-Being Kit is a tool for sustaining the daily individual and group well-being of youth workers, professionals, leaders, activists, educators and trainers, and everyone who works in the youth field. The Kit includes good practices and innovative ideas; and is suitable for both individual and group use. Each set consists of 40 double-sided cards, sized 8×12 cm, packed in a cotton bag. The online version of My Well-Being Kit is available for download here and to explore it in an interactive way here.
My Well-Being Kit was presented to the public during the Open Webinar in November 2024. The webinar, entitled “Creating Life Balance: A Journey with My Well-Being Kit”, attracted almost 200 participants from Europe and beyond.
The printed version of the Kit can be ordered here.

Results

For our individual project participants:

• increased self-awareness, motivation and self-confidence to provide quality youth work,
• better understanding of contemporary challenges and how well-being can be sustained in such conditions,
• improved competences and knowledge of specific tools to be used in regular work with young people.

For our partner organisations:

• improved atmosphere and working environment,
• increased capacity of the professionals in the organisations,
• better quality of youth work provided to young people (online and offline).

For European youth work:

• international opportunities for quality learning experiences on the topic of well-being and mental health through our webinars, training courses and the local follow-up activities,
• better understanding of how to maintain well-being of the youth and the youth workers and activists,
• strengthened quality of youth work.

The small steps which we took within our project bring the butterfly effect: the participants bring impact to the organisations and the young people they work with. Through them, they bring change to the local communities, with the plan to contribute to a better Europe.

Sustaining well-being starts first with a single individual, but the combined effect of single numerous efforts brings a change to a healthier world!

The Team

The Donor

Our project was co-funded by the European Union. We are very thankful for making our idea possible to realise thanks to this support!
Project number 2023-1-PL01-KA153-YOU-000148664