In April, the ESK Team organized its very first Exchange of Experts on the topic of Mental Health in Long-Term Volunteering.
As times become increasingly challenging, both youth workers and volunteers are facing growing pressures. Together with our wonderful colleagues from across Europe, we spent five days exploring a trauma-sensitive approach and deepening our understanding of mental health and well-being. We learned about what trauma is, what happens to our brains under stress, the concept of the Window of Tolerance, and how to recognize, create, and maintain psychological safety. We also explored self-care and support techniques that can be applied in our daily work.
Beyond the training itself, there was plenty of good food, great conversations, and valuable exchanges of experiences and ideas. Most importantly, we built meaningful connections with colleagues from different countries and organizations.
A special thank you goes to our trainer, Kira Kaplan who guided us through the entire process in an engaging and accessible way and helped make complex topics easy to understand.
We would like to thank everyone who joined us and contributed to creating such a supportive learning environment. We hope to put everything we learned into practice in our daily work and, who knows, maybe meet our colleagues again somewhere else in the world!
