"Youth work is a broad term covering a wide variety of activities of a social, cultural,educational, environmental and/or political nature by, with and for young people,in groups or individually". Trauma-informed youth work is a new concept in youth work in Ukraine, but at the same time it is a necessary practice that meets the needs of young people."
Trauma Informed Youth Work Handbook
The manual "Trauma Informed youth work" developed in 2022 by the Council of Europe Project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase II" in co-operation with the Council of Europe Project "Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Building Solutions. Phase II" was presented on 1 December, 2023 at the Seventh All-Ukrainian Forum of Youth Workers: Hardened. Cohesive.
On the first day of the Forum, the Council of Europe Project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III" at the invitation of the organisers held a workshop "Trauma Informed youth work" for youth workers from different regions of Ukraine. The workshop was also attended by graduates of the 2022 programme - trainers from the training course on trauma informed youth work.
During the workshop, the participants explored the content of the concepts of stress, traumatic stress and traumatic event, identified ways to restore themselves and young people. Youth workers analysed the activities of their organisations and centres with a view to creating space for young people's recovery and resilience.
As one of the results of the workshop, using the "One Word" facilitation method, the participants developed recommendations for the Council of Europe, youth centres and organisations, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, including:
- Support youth NGOs
- Learning about human rights with young people
- Teach to take care of yourself
- Implement the Resilience Act
- Increase the salaries of youth workers
- Make a Self-Help and Self-Reliance Club
- Support yourself and your team's dreams
- Do no harm!
Also during the workshop, attention was drawn to the co-operation of youth centers from Ukraine and youth centers that have the Quality Label of the Council of Europe, in particular in Ireland and Finland. Thus, in the implementation of trauma informed youth work, the following articles can be useful:
- Finnish-style youth work – process orientation and the principle of self-sufficiency, Lidiya Indychenko, acting director of the Donetsk Regional Children's and Youth Center (Vinnytsia).
- Search for insights: studying the peculiarities of youth work in Ireland, Kateryna Bezhinar, youth worker of the youth center "Space of Ideas" in Kremenchuk (Poltava region).
As a reminder, the Manual "Trauma Informed Youth Work" contains a description of the curriculum and relevant sessions for conducting a five-day training for youth workers. In addition, the training programme can be used as a constructor and adapted to the needs of the audience, format and available time. Each session is a completed learning block and has an explanation of the prerequisites and possible next steps. The goal is to strengthen the competencies of youth workers and employees of youth centres in Ukraine to implement educational and awareness-raising activities in the context of trauma informed youth work.
The Forum was organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre, the Association of Youth Workers of Ukraine in co-operation with the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine, the USAID Decentralization Offering Better Results and Efficiency Program (DOBRE) with the financial support of the Governments of Denmark and Japan, and the United States Agency for International Development.
History of the Trauma Informed Youth Work Programme
In 2022, for four months, the Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase II" in cooperation with the Council of Europe project "Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Building Solutions. Phase II", the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and 12 youth centers in Ukraine implemented the educational and practical programme "Trauma Informed Youth Work". The idea of this Programme arose in April 2022 during a series of meetings of youth workers of Ukraine dedicated to discussing the current challenges and priorities of youth work during the war. In turn, a series of meetings was held in response to the results of a survey at the end of March 2022 on topical issues and needs of youth workers in Ukraine.
In 2023, the Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III" in co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Youth Centre developed and conducted four trainings of the specialised course "Trauma Informed Youth Work" within the framework of the state programme "Youth Worker" and the All-Ukrainian Week of Mapping Psychological Services for Young People in Hromadas for redirection in the work of youth centres and youth workers. In addition, at the request of youth centres and organisations, specialised training has already been conducted by graduates of the Council of Europe programme in Volyn and Kyiv regions.
The project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase III" was launched within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026. The project builds on the results and experience of the Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine" in 2020-2022 and will expand the systematic impact by strengthening youth policies based on participatory approaches and strengthening youth work during the war and in the post-war context, taking into account the specific needs of young people.
More Council of Europe educational resources for working with young people are available here – https://www.coe.int/uk/web/kyiv/youth-for-democracy-in-ukraine
