INNER PEACE

ERASMUS+ KA2 Capacity building in the field of youth
Project number: 101093483 — Inner Peace — ERASMUS-YOUTH-2022-CB

Project Partners:

Well-being Lab (Sweden)

ASOCIATIA SMART EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS (Romania)

STOWARZYSZENIE EUROPE 4 YOUTH (Poland)

Larpifiers AMKE (Greece)

DOREA EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE WTF (Cyprus)

Conflicts around the globe have a detrimental influence on communities, political stability, the economy, the relationships between nations and people, and detrimental effects on an individual's mental health. Nonetheless, this is an area where youth organisations have significant capacity to intervene and offer support while highlighting the role of the rule of law and democracy. We are developing this project to increase the expertise of youth workers and help them not only become advocates of democracy and leaders in mental health support for people affected by conflicts, but also to increase their resilience and ability to deal with the struggles they face themselves. Mindfulness techniques empower individuals to be interested in and receptive to their experiences. Mindfulness-based therapies often emphasise helping people learn to accept and experience their negative feelings in a more positive way. Mindfulness empowers individuals to approach their ideas and emotions with more objectivity. The majority of youth work occurs without the stated goal of "working on" conflicts. This more "indirect" approach to conflict-related youth work is critical because it provides opportunities for young people to experience something different, an alternative to their conflict experience, and it provides safe environments for young people to relax, deal with new and other concerns, have new experiences in an entertaining manner, and reflect on matters that intrigue them in general. Youth work practice in connection to conflict is fairly similar to youth work practice in general. Nonetheless, it has certain unique traits that need the development of specialised skills and competencies on the part of people who participate in it. Inner Peace project aims to address those issues.

To support aims of the project "Inner Peace", project partners will conduct training courses for youth workers in Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and a final closing conference in Turkey.