RISE&SHINE – Empowering front-line youth workers to manage their well-being, enhancing their ability to address youth mental health

Cooperation Partnership in Youth

CONTEXT

The EU’s approach to mental health centres around three fundamental principles: (i) adequate and effective prevention, (ii) access to high quality and affordable mental healthcare and treatment, and (iii) reintegration into society after recovery. The RISE&SHINE project responds to the first principle of this new European policy. Since the pandemic young people have been disproportionately affected and burdened, with half of all young Europeans reporting mental health struggles and being diagnosed with chronic mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. With this mental health epidemic affecting young people across Europe, it is time to find a new approach to engaging young people in programmes that can support their well-being. Youth workers can play a critical role in providing this support, and in engaging young people in managing their well-being.

OBJECTIVES

Support youth workers’ well-being by providing comprehensive mental health and well-being resources, as well as building their resilience and coping skills to effectively address the challenges and stressors they encounter in their role.
Empower youth workers with resilience-building and coping skills so that they can maintain their own well-being routines, before transferring these practices to supporting the well-being of young people.The project offers continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities for youth workers and equip youth workers with innovative tools and techniques to deliver high-quality youth work interventions to support the well-being of young people.
Equip youth workers with innovative tools and techniques to deliver high-quality youth work interventions to support the well-being of young people.
Empower youth workers to advocate for policies and initiatives that support the well-being and needs of their profession, as well as the young people they work with, while also recognizing the crucial role of youth work in society by influencing policy.

ACTIVITIES

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The project has a designated project management team responsible for overseeing all project activities. Youth workers, providers of youth work training, youth work networks, and youth work quality standards bodies will be involved as advisors and contributors to the project. Each partner will enlist 10 such stakeholders within their national QAP (quality assurance plan), engaging them in various project activities. QAP members will meet online throughout the project to partake in these activities. Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) will be developed to monitor the progress, quality, and achievement of the project activities.

YOUTH WORKER WELL-BEING PLANNER AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICE JOURNAL

The partners will create a planner and reflective practice journal for youth workers to improve their well-being. They engage 12 youth workers in each country (72 across the consortium) in piloting and using these resources, and in completing the 30-day well-being challenge. All partners will complete pre- and post-training surveys. This 30-day well-being planner will be presented as a journal (book), that can be printed for youth workers. Each page of the planner will include QR Code to the micro-learning resource which will be hosted on the online platform, section for notes and prompts for reflective practice.
Partners will develop 30 micro-learning resources which will each take between 3 and 5 minutes to complete and will be presented in one of the following formats: short, animated video or audio files; online quiz; article or blog; challenge or digital breakout; infographics.

One of the partners will develop the learning objectives for the 30 topics and the templates for the 30-day planner and the reflective practice journal. Each partner research and develops the content for 5 micro-learning resources and develops 5 self-reflective exercises for the reflective practice journal. A portal for the RISE&SHINE project on their MOOC platform will be developed.

Activities also included a staff meeting in Ireland, peer reviewing the resources, translation, and proofreading.

WELL-BEING AND RESILIENCE TOOLKIT

This resource for youth workers includes 12-hour CPD training covering six topics. Additionally, there will be 18 active learning activities focusing on these topics. Partners will provide CPD training to 12 youth workers each and test the toolkit with 20 young people during Mental Health Learning Festivals.

The 12-hours of CPD training will address the following 6 topics:
Understanding Youth Mental Health;
The Power of Creative Practices in Well-being;
Ethical Considerations in Youth Work;
Building Resilience in Young People;
Using the Well-being and Resilience Toolkit;
Trauma-Informed Practices.

18 active learning activities will be developed, using creative, musical, and artistic approaches to support the well-being of young people. These activities will address the following 6 topics:
A) Emotional Self-regulation
B) Mindfulness and Relaxation
C) Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution
D) Building Resilience and Coping Skills
E) Positive Self-Image and Self-Esteem
F) Peer Support and Social Connection

One of the partners will create templates and guidelines for all partners and establish the learning outcomes, guidelines, and templates for the CPD modules. Another partner will handle the learning objectives, guidelines, and templates for the toolkit activities. All partners will collaborate in developing the CPD training and toolkit. Each partner will create the content for one CPD module (2 hours each) and one toolkit topic (3 activities each – one creative, one musical, and one artistic).

POLICY LEARNING, PEER SUPPORT, PROMOTION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Peer support among youth workers through transnational collaboration will be facilitated. Project partners develop focus group sessions with trained youth workers to gather policy and practice recommendations, culminating in the creation of an evidence-based Policy Paper by one of the partners. This paper will advocate for the inclusion of youth worker mental health as a priority in European Health Union policy and will be widely promoted through platforms like EPALE and SALTO-Youth to inspire spin-off projects across Europe. Dissemination strategy and accompanying promotional tools will be developed to ensure the wide reach of the project.

RESULTS

A. INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS

Youth Worker Well-being Planner and Reflective Practice Journal available in 5 languages to facilitate widespread use among youth workers.
E-learning Platform.
Well-being and Resilience Toolkit developed in 5 languages to provide comprehensive resources for supporting youth workers well-being.

B. OTHER RESULTS
Project Management Plan, Quality Assurance Framework, Risk Management and Assessment Plan, Dissemination Plan, Green Plan, Impact Plan, Communication Protocol, Interim and a final evaluation report, project logo and website, project newsletters.
Piloting Activities with 12 youth workers and 20 young people. Local Dissemination Events engaging 120 youth work stakeholders to share project outcomes and promote awareness of well-being support for youth workers. Transnational Peer Support Event with 12 youth workers, providing an opportunity for cross-border collaboration and knowledge sharing among participants.

PARTICIPANTS

12 youth workers and 20 young people will be engaged in piloting activities in all 6 partner countries. 120 youthwork stakeholders will be engaged in local dissemination events. 12 youth workers will attend the ‘Peer Support’ Transnational Event in the Czech Republic.

The direct target group is youth workers. The end beneficiaries are young people.

IMPACT

The project will provide support and training to youth workers through the well-being planner and journal, as well as the well-being and resilience toolkit developed in 5 languages, so that they are better
equipped to support the well-being of young people.
Through the virtual transnational training and national piloting, there will be further impact of stakeholders and organisations, by engaging their staff in up-skilling to support youth workers in their networks to manage their own mental health and well-being.
On the European level, all project materials will be promoted through the SALTO-Youth Platform and the Erasmus+ Results Platform, to ensure that youthwork professionals across Europe can access project’s resources.

RISE&SHINE offers distinct European-level advantages by generating outcomes that extend beyond what can be accomplished within a single country. This transnational perspective is crucial for addressing issues like youth well-being on a scale that no single country could effectively tackle alone.
The project also contributes to the standardisation of quality in youth work by pooling knowledge from diverse European contexts. This collective effort allows for the creation of guidelines, resources, and training programmes that accurately reflect the multifaceted needs and challenges encountered at the European level.

Project Card:

Start: 01-01-2024 End: 31-12-2025
Project Reference: 2023-2-CZ01-KA220-YOU-000175004
EU Grant: 250 000 EUR
Programme: Erasmus+
Action Type: KA220-YOU – Cooperation partnerships in youth
Coordinator: ALIANCE LEKTORU a KONZULTANTU, Czech Republic https://www.trainers-alliance.eu/
Partners: WeLearn Limited, Ireland https://www.welearn.ie/
ARPIS Asociacion Regional Para la Inclusion Social, Spain https://www.arpis.es/
S.E.A.L CYPRUS, Cyprus https://www.facebook.com/sealngocy
INSTITOYTO KOINONIKIS KAINOTOMIAS KAI SYNOXIS, Greece https://fifty-fifty.gr/
Asociatia TEAM 4 Excellence, Romania https://trainingclub.eu/