Seminar funded under Erasmus+ · Ommen, the Netherlands · 20–26 September 2026 – EnvironMental Netherlands
30 youth workers · 7 countries · Creative methods for young people going through change
The challenge
Leaving school, moving to a new country, losing a job, finding a new identity: young people go through big changes, often all at once. Youth workers are often the adults they turn to in those moments. Many of them already use creative methods that work. But that knowledge usually stays in one organisation, in one country, in one person’s head.
Creative Frameworks, a seminar organised by EnvironMental, brought that knowledge into one room, so youth workers could learn from each other’s practice and take new tools home.
What we did
Creative Frameworks for Guiding Young People Through Periods of Transition & Change was an Erasmus+ project for youth workers from seven partner organisations. It had three stages:
- Online preparation (August 2026): participants met online and started building a shared framework for working with young people in transition.
- Seminar in Ommen (September 2026): seven days of learning together. The participants themselves led most of the sessions, each sharing a creative method from their own work.
- Local activities (October–December 2026): participants bring the methods back to young people in their own communities.
The seminar was built as a space where everyone is both a learner and a teacher.
My role
I was the trainer of the seminar. I designed and led the first and last days: on Day 1, the group got to know each other, mapped their work and the young people they serve, set their learning goals and agreed on how to work together. On Day 7, we harvested the learning and planned the next steps.
From Day 2 to Day 6, the participants led the sessions themselves. My role was to support them, keep the structure, and hold space for reflection. The project was coordinated by Joanna Nikolova, with team supervision by Cristian Walker, logistics by Kai Van Maurik, and all photos by Violetta Baevsky.
Bring this to your team
Are you planning a training, seminar or exchange and need someone to design and hold it? I design and facilitate learning programmes for youth workers, educators and teams, where the group’s own experience is at the centre.
🇪🇺 Creative Frameworks was supported by the Erasmus+ Programme and coordinated by Stichting EnvironMental (the Netherlands) with Creatosphere as the Bulgarian partner organisation.