Author: drnicko

When planning youth work activities during a pandemic, it is crucial to recognize the wider impact of this situation on youth work. To this end, here are the results of a study on the effects of the pandemic on youth work in Europe (RAY-COR). Below you will find short highlights of the research. The results of the research are presented by Andreas Karsten, a journalist and researcher (Hostnik, 2020).

The RAY-COR survey identified both bad and good effects and was done in collaboration with national agencies such as Slovenian one – Movit and universities, with the aim of determining the extent to which youth work was accessible to young people during a pandemic. Research has shown that a pandemic has the greatest impact on the mental health of young people, which is why we can also talk about a mental crisis. The pandemic has also had a major impact on youth employment and education. (Hostnik, 2020).

What is then the good news? Youth work has quickly come to digital online platforms where young people have been able to discuss more serious topics and their future. And the bad one? The most excluded were marginalized groups of young people who fell out of the reach of social networks (Hostnik, 2020).

Below, here is a good practice The Center for Youth Assistance (CPM) on how to how to adapt your work online:

The Center for Youth Assistance (CPM) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization that offers free psychosocial counseling and the possibility of free psychotherapy to young people between the ages of 15 and 30, and those associated with them, with experienced experts in the field of psychosocial counseling and working with young people.

The counseling center welcomes all young people who find themselves in various difficulties, who do not know or cannot solve them on their own and who need support in finding suitable solutions for themselves. Often, the plight of young people is related to relationships with parents, peers, partners, authorities, or loneliness. Relative problems of young people, however, are reflected in the form of various behaviors such as escape from addiction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, self-harm, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and other forms of mental distress (Romih, 2021).

During the epidemic, the association created an additional digital activity “Scene without a name”, where they created an open online environment in which participants can anonymously expose their plight. Based on the expressed hardships and challenges, young people with similar problems discuss and look for solutions. This creates more understanding, young people get an interlocutor who they do not have in the real world without this activity (Hostnik, 2020).

Observing changes:

Certainly, with the online implementation, they have reached young people who would not otherwise. Even before the epidemic, young people from all over Slovenia visited the counseling center, and online implementation is certainly logistically more acceptable for those who do not live in Ljubljana or its surroundings (Hostnik, 2020).

Recommendations:

The project came out of the need to offer young people from the counseling center who are experiencing similar challenges, as well as other young people who would be interested in the project, a safe place to talk. The response of the young people was surprising, at this moment it is a challenge for the association to ensure the regular implementation of activities. If they were to start the project again, they would pay more attention to the time availability of the staff that implements it, include the activity in the annual plans, make a strategy (who implements what and the scope of implementation) (Hostnik, 2020).

If you would like to know more recommendations on how to tackle online youth work, more information is available here.

Growth Mindset is for Leaders and Great Mindset is for Leaders in Art

Article by Svetoslava Stoyanova, NMCT

Growth mindset is a well-known concept of not only the ambitious novice – it is also a conscious corporate target of many renowned employers. Carol Dweck, a lead researcher on the topic and author of the book with the same name, states that as humans, we operate in both a fixed and a growth mindset. Apparently, one should intentionally strive for amending their brain to the growth state of mind.

GROW INTENTIONALLY

Growth mindset is an attitude that allows us ‘to understand that [our] abilities can be developed’ (Dweck, 2014). It is often intertwined with the idea that if someone demonstrates a growth mindset, they are determined to succeed. To succeed in arts however, we need something more. We need Great mindset of inspiration. 

GROW PURPOSEFULLY

I now invite you to build on the idea of possessing a growth mindset with something I’ll call a great mindset. It is an attitude that every time I witness as a coach in my sessions, no matter if the coachee’s work path is in arts or in another field, it fuels my belief that people actually can change for the better. Great mindset in my view is the ability of a person to admit and acknowledge their individual pace in achieving a goal. It is a matter of velocity and a matter of momentum too. Like when we create.

GREAT MINDSET BASICS

Great mindset is about Growing Reasonably, Eagerly, in an Admirable manner that makes you Thrive  feeling GREAT.

How will you know that you experience the great mindset yourself?

While fulfilling a desire or a goal, climbing the career ladder or euphorically launching an own artistic project, here are five signs of that unmatched mindset as an acronym for GREAT:  

1) Growing

The change is going through your veins. You are partially out of your comfort zone, but you are savoring the effort of, for instance, waking up an hour earlier to learn the alphabet of a new language or code. 

2) Reasonably

Growing reasonably is growing in a satisfactory way at a price that is not too expensive for you to pay. It means you know your Why, and the gravity of the change you want to create or the milestone you are about to accomplish.

3) Eagerly

“Go the extra mile, it’s never crowded there” they often say. You pursue your better self in a joyous and fulfilling way, you have the energy to go that extra mile, and you are exhilarated to do so.

4) Admirably

You follow your way in a fashion worthy of admiration. Moreover, a tribe of followers, inspired by you, is about to form and it seems that your goal or cause is enlightening others too.  

5) Thrivingly

This is the thing and this is the way. You feel it, you see it, you know it. What differentiates it from bare enthusiasm though, is that it doesn’t appear as a sprint, but is much more like a marathon and you have the capacity to endure it. You don’t need a special energy recourse to fuel your stamina, by taking action itself you gain the energy to keep going towards the direction you have chosen.   

The great mindset is the sweet spot of doing and being altogether. The sweet spot of Chiksenmihai’s flow. This is a territory where there is no need to define yourself. You are a work in progress, you are the designer of your day and your way forward, and it feels… yes, it feels exactly GREAT!   

Summary by Iana Avramova, NMCT

Creativity is a buzz-word that we have been hearing every day the past decade. There are many definitions of creativity. The one that resolute the most with us is that creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. One of its characteristics is the ability to view the world from different point-of-view, while finding hidden patterns and connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena. But most importantly it is about generating solutions.

The Netflix documentary “The Creative brain” introduces to us professionals from across the creative spectrum that unravel the creative process, and encourage all of us to be more creative.

At the very beginning of the movie we are shown that our brains have a predisposition to creativity as we are the only specie on Earth that can consider our options before making a choice. This means that the input of sensory information is not directly related to our output. One great example that is given in the movies is about food. If you give a mouse a piece of cheese it will only eat it. It will not think of using it for anything else. While we, humans can think of many other uses to food. For example, we can use it for decoration, we can use it for a fight (the Spanish tomato fights), we can use an apple as a paperweight or crave pumpkins for lanterns.

The fact that we can disengage our instincts and see things beyond their original purpose is the foundation of creativity. As it is shown in the movie, creativity is all about taking ideas from one place and applying them to another place, maybe in a an utterly different context. This is one of the creativity boosters in the movie:

1. Creativity is about taking in a new information and combining it with what we already know. The richer and broader the inputs, the more the brain can play with them. This is how seemingly mutually exclusive ideas when combined can lead to a third entity with aspects of both. So, creativity is about playing with the convention rather than rejecting it.
   
   
2. Creativity emerges of the interplay of neurons from all around the brain (not only from one of the two hemispheres as we were though in the past). Sights and signs are mixing with memories, thoughts, emotions, new and old. It is all about going outside into the world, using what is around us to generate new concepts, new designs, new perspective.
   
   
3. Our brain weights only about 1,5 kg and it takes up to 20% of all our energy. In order to optimize the use of energy, the brain always show us first the easiest solution (not necessarily the best one). This property of our brain is called “the path of least resistance”. In order to be creative we need to ignore the easiest solutions and to dive deeper to find innovative solutions.
   
   
4. The brain is a novelty seeker because what is old and familiar becomes less and less stimulating. It is pushing us to look for the new and unexplored. Creative ideas have to exist in a balance between the familiar and the new. It is all about pushing the boundaries in all directions to see where good enough and new enough is.
   
   
5. Last but not least, the movie shows that most people successes rise of the ashes of their previous failures. We have to accept failure as we are not our failure. We are more than just on failed act. But if we never fail, we will never succeed in creative solutions.

Long we have been thinking that creativity is anteriority just to some people – mostly the ones that are engaged in arts. However, recent studies from research centers and universities around the World and the movie “The creative brain”, show that creativity is a skill and it can be learned like we learn math, languages, and science. It is all about changing our perception, going outside, and releasing the creative potential that lies in each one of us.

A new study reveals that “hot streaks appear to be associated with neither exploration, nor exploitation behavior in isolation, but a particular sequence of exploration followed by exploitation, where the transition from exploration to exploitation closely traces the onset of a hot streak.”

It seems that we employ the mechanism of creativity when we not only embrace our interests and talents, but also when we commit to do the work.

More inspiration and knowledge on the topic, please find in this article.

DiARC team