Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Training Course
Venue: Nowy Sacz, Poland
Dates: 18 – 25 February 2017
Participants: Filip Kňažek, Pavla Kolářová
Please read the info pack
Hosting organisation: Stowarzyszenie Moje Marzenia Spełniają Się
Participating organisations: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, United Kingdom, Latvia, Germany, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belgium
Project report:
In the second part of February two participants from Czech Republic started their journey for an unforgettable project called Mindful Coaching in Youth Work. Wait! Their journey actually started already four weeks before the training course on a beautiful learning platform prepared by the organisers and in common facebook group. There we had the opportunity to get to know the participants already before start of the training course, discuss the topic of youth unemployment in 11 different European countries and discuss the meaning of mindfulness and coaching.
If you are struggling with this two words here are some definitions we agreed on on the project: Coaching is a technique that uses very appropriate questions to unlock people´s potential to maximise their performance and to make them learn from their own answers rather than teaching them. Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focussing one´s attention/ awareness on the present moment by calmly acknowledging and accepting one´s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.
But back to our two Czech participants. I met Pája in bus from Ostrava to Nowy Sacz, little cosy medieval city in the south of Poland. Here we spent one intense week from 18th to 25th February with another 22 people from 11 different countries – Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Latvia, UK, Hungary and of course Poland. Training Course was organised by My Dreams Come True Asscociation (MMS) headed by the loveliest sisters you can ever meet – Basia and Gosia! Gosia was as our mommy and she took care about every practical thing from accommodation to food and making reservation for us in the Escape room game. Basia together with Lilian – professional coach coming from Ireland – were our trainers throughout the whole week. Organisers made the atmosphere of the project familiar already from the beginning – each participant got his/ her own beautiful notebook with handmade cover made by Gosia and her mom!
With Pája we were already from the beginning excited about the whole topic and our excitement did not fall during the whole week. From the very first evening the group dynamics was pretty effective and the atmosphere in the group was always warm, positive and friendly. Everybody just felt very comfortable and it helped the whole project to be just awesome. Over the week we went through the topic of mindfulness, coaching and as well self-awareness and self-development. We practiced mindfulness by different types of guided meditation. We learned a lot of useful coaching methods, we practiced more times the coaching in a group of three where one person was coach, one coachee and one observer and each time we changed our roles. We had a lot of very productive and sometimes as well deep discussion with very vivid and open-minding ideas. Most of the time we spent together as a group in one building as we did not really had any other needs.
In the middle of the week we had free afternoon in the city so we could discover it. We also did the Escape room game with two different types of rooms – psychiatry ward and gold mining rush. At the end of the day we had very nice and typical polish dinner in the middle of the town in a town hall. During the week we had change to get to know the typical polish food more times, as well as some kind of international food in the international night.
On the project we had the opportunity to get to know each other and ourselves better, to learn from each other, to get inspired and motivated, to inspire and motivate, to share our ideas and experiences and to gain a lot of skills and knowledge about the topic of coaching and mindfulness. This week was very fruitful and I am sure none of the participants will ever forget it, as we created together something very special there J
Of course it would not be possible to live it through if I and Pája were not accepted by EYCB to this project. Therefore I would like to say big thank you to EYCB. Keep going in taking part in this type of project. They are really worth it and can be life-changing!
Filip Kňažek
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