Are you involved with troubled/traumatized youth (10-24 years old) either through your full-time, part-time or voluntary work?
You might be a youth-worker, child protector, social worker or social pedagogue, school psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, a police officer, lawyer, judge, teacher, volunteer, a doctor, guard in the prison, etc.
As you might have noticed, your work affects you. You may be more tired than usual, or you may spend your free time reflecting on young people you desperately want to help. You may have headaches, muscle aches, feel easily upset, have trouble sleeping, etc.
This project has been initiated just for you, to provide personal support and self-care to make sure you stay energized and healthy while helping others.
The training thus combines knowledge, skills, and feelings, which is the necessary prerequisite for learning well. You will get to know many different creative methods and the group will be a stable anchor for your personal development.
Our project is co-financed by ERASMUS+ and it`s official name is: PROJECT 2023-1-EE01-KA220-YOU-000159097
Youth workers and the threat of vicarious trauma in the professional field
An integrative self-care practice training as an approach for supporting resilience.
Estonian Gestalt & Training Center was established to provide professional support, education and training to professionals working with people, in the field of mental health or education. Our aim is to deepen professional knowledge, promote mental health, psychological and emotional
well-being.
YOMN provides training for youth workers and educators on youth mental health, trauma, suicide prevention, socio-emotional learning and other topics.
Masaryk University is the second largest and second best university in the Czech Republic. It has over 6500 employees, 10 faculties and over
40 000 students signed in its programs.
The department taking part from this project is part of the Faculty of Education, which is specialized to professional preparation of the youth-workers and social educators.
Professionals working with troubled and traumatized young people may be at risk of burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and secondary traumatization.
We are developing an early intervention and personal support program to strengthen the personality, knowledge and skills of youth workers to promote resilience.
Project activities include:
Our first step is to look at what has already been researched and published on the topics of compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, self-care and prevention. We will summarise the key findings and use them in study to prepare our training.
In addition, we want to have direct contact with the field of work. We will survey around 300 professionals in three countries to get current data and find out what their experiences are and what professionals need.
In parallel, international and national stakeholder meetings will take place to engage the field of work. Based on the new findings, a practical training concept will be developed, and a training program will be implemented for at least 250 youth workers.
A holistic training program for youth workers based on psycho-education, self-awareness and empowerment, together with self-care principles. The program includes awareness-raising approaches, strategies and tools for working with traumatized young people to prevent trauma in practice. The result is a practical training concept, a curriculum and a training manual to support youth workers.