Are you involved in community actions and would you like to get new skills to support compassionate environment within the group you work with?
Do you want to learn new empathy-based and embodied methodologies of working with youth/community groups?
Do you want to gain tools to improve and maintain personal well-being thus contributing to developing resilience in yourself and young people you work with?

Join our training course: Creating Compassionate Cultures – Group work based on empathy, well-being and cooperation

For who?
Youth workers, social workers, educators, trainers, community leaders – working or volunteering with youth or community groups.

If you are rooted in your community and see your possibility to make a difference and you are willing to bring more empathy and compassion into the community practices, welcome aboard!

How?
Through dialogue, group and self-reflection, bodywork, mindfulness, stillness, movement, dance and play we will journey into our personal stories and experiences, learn from each other and create a shared understanding of what is necessary to bring more compassion, support and empathy in youth work.

Venues:
** Cottage under stars – cosy cottage in a small town Modra (30 km from Bratislava), located in the forest of Little Carpathians. We will stay there for six days
** Bystro – community living room – is a space in Bratislava, created by people who care about authentic relationships and feel responsible toward the natural environment. Together we are looking for ways to live less materialistic and more connected. Our activities are related to ecology, culture and community.
Accommodation for he last 2 days in Bratislava is in Freddie hostel nearby Bystro living room.

The participants and the partner organisations are expected to:
* transfer the competences developed at this training course further to youth workers, teachers, trainers, facilitators and community leaders
*ensure the wider impact of this project by implementing concrete follow-up activities and providing opportunities with and for young people in their regions and countries.

In case of any questions feel free to contact
Katarina at: compassionate.cultures@gmail.com

This course will be led by:

Ilze Jece – Ilze has over two decades of experience in social and environmental activism, thus also providing training courses on environmental education, activism and campaigning for various organisations. She has experience working with women’s groups in prison and crisis center, international camps and training courses, mentoring them to develop leadership skills, as well as work on their personal development. Ilze is also a movement educator, bodyworker and certified embodied facilitator.

Kasia Stepien – Kasia weaves together her passion for embodied practices, nature and communities, inspiring mindful re-connection with self, others and the Earth. She is certified dance meditation facilitator, mindfulness practitioner, explorer and activist, active in facilitating learning processes social change and personal transformation since 2012. In her work she creates heart-based spaces supporting young people and adults on their journeys to wholeness, based on compassion, authentic expression, self-awareness and play.

Katarina Karcolova – Katarina is a social soul, who loves to be outdoors. She enjoys being in a group, community, sharing food, things and moments. Last ten years she has been involved in non-formal education as a project manager mostly working in the area of global education and instructor in experiential outdoor education. Lately she has been involved in activities with youngsters from marginalized groups. Bystro with its community played a big role in her last 2 years, as an oasis of togetherness it was for her a place to be, try and co-create.

The training course is financed by the EU program Erasmus+