The Net is Working! Mental Health in Volunteering

Through international youth work, especially our activities in the European Solidarity Corps (ESC), we are connected to wonderful people and organizations in many countries. And whilst each might approach work differently and use different methods and solutions, we are connected through mutual values and visions. As often as possible at Turbina Pomerania we try to organize in-person meetings with our international colleagues to improve our network & personal connections, and learn from and with each other. The diverse perspectives, people and ideas are an immensely important resource (and motivation!) for our work. Furthermore, we believe that forming a reliable network of international partnerships makes youth organizations more resilient towards the uncertainties that our fast-changing world brings. It is important to us to meet, but even more so to exchange best-practice and learn from each other. Therefore, this time, we choose “mental health in volunteering” as the thematic base for our meeting. We observe an increase in mental health issues, connected to climate anxiety, despair in face of global poly-crises, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic amongst the youth participating in our projects. Is is important we address this issue, give room for voicing problems – and share good ideas & solutions.

The programme of the workshop was formed appreciating the participant's input and expectations, trying to create a schedule as beneficiary as possible for everybody involved. Most activities were planned and realized at Straze in Greifswald. At the end of the first day a study-visit was done to "Gutshaus Glashagen" where the participants met with current federal and international volunteers. The volunteers had prepared an exhibition of the projects that they realized during their volunteering periods. A second study-visit was done on day two to the kindergarten "Wilde 9" (Anisa e.V.) where we learned about the special pedagogical concept of this nature kindergarten and the connections to mental health. Input by a volunteer on her experience with mental health while volunteering (evening of day 2) and an expert input by psychologist J.Händel (morning of day 3) completed the programme content.

The participating youth workers could gain a good understanding of the local youth work in Greifswald, meet local youth organizations' representatives and began creating future projects. We are extremely happy about the contributions of all participants, the openness, the problems and insights shared, and all of the laughs we had together. The Net is working!