Podpornik

In 2019, Lojtra has been running an Erasmus+ programme, where we work with a local primary school to form a group of 15 young people who we meet regularly between September and March, and then run an international youth exchange with them. After the experience, we involve them in the work of local youth organisations. So there have been regular meetings and trust has been built within the group. Then came the shock of two young people cancelling their participation. We were extremely surprised by this, as we are not used to cancellations. Not at all in our work with teenagers, where we have a lot of meetings and where we are careful to create a safe space for everyone present. The reasons and the way of cancellation were different, but because we wanted to understand them better, we discovered through conversations with each other, with teachers and with the school management that in one case it was a person with an eating disorder, and in the other case it was an extremely difficult home situation. What struck and surprised us the most from the whole experience was the fact that the youth workers did not detect this in advance and consequently did not react to the situations. That is why we decided to apply with this project.

Aim: To develop an organisational approach to empower youth workers to work successfully with young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Project Objectives: 1. To conduct a survey on the necessary competences for youth workers to work with young people with EBI (in relation to the competences youth workers already have and the situations they face). 2. To develop a competency model to empower youth workers to perceive the EBI of young people and to apply possible solutions to different scenarios of deviant behaviour and the youth worker's reactions to them. 3. To develop a manual for youth workers that includes a cross-section of key topics in the field. 4. Develop a training curriculum for youth workers. Three modules of 6 days each. 5. Test the designed modules on 27 youth workers. 6. Identify a support network in the local area that can support the youth worker in dealing with young people with EBI. 7. To develop organisational guidelines for the development of organisations towards inclusion and sufficient support for young people with EBI, with a particular focus on support for youth workers working with young people with EBI 8. Produce a series of 15 podcasts with different mental health professionalls