Mental wellness - resilience and mental health at European Solidarity Corps volunteering projects

Why this Training Course?

Mental health problems among young people have increased dramatically over the years- some research shows that almost 20% of young Europeans experience mental health disorders among which depression and anxiety are the most common ones.

Recently experienced Covid-19 pandemic with lockdowns, limited social encounters and difficulties in reaching professional support made these conditions even worse.

Therefore, we see a strong need to provide practical tools for people working with volunteers to accompany them in building a safe environment which would be supporting mental wellness at the projects.

What are we aiming for?

The aim of the training course is to provide participants with practical psychological and coaching tools to support mental wellness and resilience of ESC volunteers.

What are our specific objectives?

• To have a common understanding of mental health;
• To recognize mental health components;
• To equip participants with means to support volunteers in their emotional and psychological well-being and to recognize signs of possible mental crisis;
• To enable participants to set the boundary beyond which reaching for a professional help is necessary;
• To provide practical psychological and coaching tools for mantaining well-being among ESC volunteers and raise awareness of its importance.

What do we want to offer in the programme?

• toolbox of approaches, concepts and methods connected to mental wellness
• basic knowledge about HEAL method by Rick Hanson
• share some concepts of happiness and wellness deriving from positive psychology
• create the chance to practice some communication and coaching tools
• some inputs from the expert in the field of mental health will also be included

To whom is this training course addressed? 

This training course is for project coordinators of ESC volunteering projects, mentors of ESC volunteers, coordinators of volunteers in local work and any other persons directly involved with volunteers locally and internationally if they are responsible for the well-being of the ESC volunteers.

We are expecting people who are motivated, able to work in English, keen to learn-by-doing , willing to share experience and eager to implement the new competences in their work.

Where and when? 

Training will be held in Konstancin-Jeziorna, a small, picturesque town approximately 20 kilometers away from Warsaw.

We start our activities on 7th of November with dinner at 18:30 followed by a short informal introduction session. Therefore, participants are expected to arrive before 18:00 CET.

There will be 3 full working days (8-10th of November) and we expect the participant to leave in the morning on 11th November.

Who are the trainers? 

Bruno Pizzini is a soft skill facilitator, coach and mentor at international level for more than 15 years, he is creating learning experiences based on the needs of his group, non-formal approaches and methods. In 2017-18 he participated in the “Training of Trainers” training course. https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/bruno-pizzini.3311/ 

Eliza Zadłużna - trainer and a coach with eighteen years of experience of working with various groups, including students, teachers, ESC volunteers, mentors and project coordinators as well as people experiencing crisis situations in their lives. On a daily basis she conducts trainings in Poland and abroad in the field of communication, resilience, mental health, coaching, creativity and intercultural education. She co-created two-year project “Rising strong” in the frame of which she was leading trainings on  mental wellness and resilience for young people and teachers. She was also working with women facing crisis situations in their lives in the frame of “Possibilities without borders” project, as well as collected stories of people with mental problems in the frame of KA2 Erasmus+ project “Spark Catcher”.