Can you hear me? I hear you.

Background The project 'Do you hear me? I hear you' was created due to the needs of youth workers who work with young people in distress and do not know how to react when a young person opens up about their (sometimes very serious) problems. In the Youth Center Zagorje we have had a Daily center opened every Friday afternoon for several years now, where young people have the opportunity to socialize, talk to youth workers and do activities that we come up with together with youth on the spot. With this project we addressed specific needs of youth workers, such as: how and when to set a limit when working with young people in need, what is the role of youth workers (mainly in Daily centres), which tools/methods are suitable for working with young people in distress. Objectives Our main objective was to develop supporting mechanisms for youth workers, youth leaders and experienced volunteers who work with young people in distress. We achieved it through development of 3 main results of the project: booklet, protocol and curriculum for working with young people in distress. We also wanted to empower youth workers, find and present good practices already existing for working with youth in distress and also adapt tools for our way of working. Our objective was (and still is) to share the results we created with others who connect with the needs we are addressing, therefore we organized dissemination events, we published the results on Erasmus+ platform and our organizations’ website and we are inviting everyone interested in hearing more about our project and results to contact us at info@mczos.si. Implementation During the project we carried out an international training course for youth workers and experienced volunteers on the topic of well-being and self-care that took place in Serbia. We had a study visit in Finland, where we learned about and experienced many good practices and methods for working with youth in distress. In Slovenia we had a test of our result 4-day curriculum for youth workers and volunteers for working with youth in distress. We also carried out 3 multiplier events in Slovenia, Serbia and Finland, with the main purpose of disseminating project results with the wider public, including participants from other sectors that also meet young people in distress at their work. Last activity we implemented during the project was a 2-day evaluation of the whole project and its results. Achievements Concrete results that we produced during our project are 3 results mainly targeted at youth workers and experienced volunteers who work with young in distress. The results are: - booklet with three parts; - protocol card with 5 basic steps of what to do when approached by a young person in distress and instructions for using the protocol; - 4-day curriculum that includes tools and methods from the booklet and introduction of the protocol card, besides other activities that fit the aims of the training. Another result worth mentioning is the reporting system we encountered in Finland which we adapted to fit our needs - we use this report as a way to stay on track with what is happening in daily centers, with youth overall and specific individuals.