🇳🇱 Erasmus+ Training Course in the Netherlands 🎨 Playfulness as a Professional Attitude in Youth Work 🌱

What becomes possible when curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, and wonder are welcomed into the centre of how we learn, relate, and work with young people? Play.full.nest is an eight-day Erasmus+ Training Course in Ommen, the Netherlands, inviting youth workers and facilitators to explore playfulness not as a technique to master, but as a doorway into greater presence, creativity, and connection.

About the Training

Play.full.nest is an invitation to explore what becomes possible when curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, wonder, and connection are welcomed into the centre of our learning, relationships, and everyday lives. Over eight days, participants create a shared learning environment where these qualities can be experienced, explored, and nurtured through direct experience.

Rather than approaching playfulness as a skill to master or a technique to apply, the training sees it as a doorway into greater presence, creativity, adaptability, and connection. Through experiential and non-formal learning, participants explore how a playful attitude can enrich their personal lives, strengthen their wellbeing, and inspire the ways they work with young people and communities.

This is an eight-day international training course for youth workers, educators, facilitators, social workers, community practitioners, and anyone accompanying the learning, growth, or wellbeing of young people. It is equally open to those taking their first steps in youth work. Whether you arrive with years of experience or fresh curiosity, your perspective, questions, and experiences will be an important part of the collective learning journey.

Please note: this programme is offered as a learning and training experience focused on practical tools, creative methods, reflection, and individual and group exploration. It is not therapy and is not intended to replace professional mental health care or clinical support.

Our Learning Journey

🔍 Exploring the Qualities: getting to know the qualities at the heart of playfulness, curiosity, imagination, sociability, humour, spontaneity, and wonder, and noticing how they already live within us

🌿 Embodying the Attitude: exploring how these qualities support presence, connection, adaptability, and the ability to engage with uncertainty, mistakes, and new possibilities

🛠️ Bringing It Into Practice: experimenting with ways of creating learning environments that are engaging, responsive, and shaped by the needs of the people present

🌀 Welcoming the Unexpected: practising how to meet uncertainty, changing circumstances, and emerging group needs with curiosity, flexibility, and attention

What Shapes the Learning Experience

🤸 Immersive Play and Movement: embodied activities that invite imagination, spontaneity, and awareness through movement and interaction

🪞 The Playful Mindset: reflective spaces focusing on curiosity, wonder, humour, and creativity in relation to our lives and practice

🧩 Co-Design Sessions: small-group explorations where ideas and experiences are transformed into activities relevant to different contexts

🎭 Playful Practice Grounds: spaces for experimenting with facilitation and adapting activities in response to the group and the moment

💬 Integration Circles: shared and individual reflection moments to connect experience with insight

🌳 Rest and Connection: time for rest, informal exchange, nature, and community life

What Is Waiting for You

✨ Space to discover how a playful attitude relates to your everyday life and work with young people

🎨 Opportunities to connect with your own creative resources and notice how curiosity and openness shape your practice

🌟 Time to reflect on how your presence influences group dynamics and how small shifts in attention can change the atmosphere of a learning space

🧰 Practical, experiential, and creative tools from non-formal education, with space to adapt them for different contexts

🌍 A supportive international environment to develop your own facilitation style through shared learning and diverse perspectives

This Project Is for You If

🙌 You work with people in youth work, education, or community contexts, or are interested in entering this field, and are curious about bringing more playfulness and imagination into your work

🌱 You are curious about experiential and embodied approaches and looking for a supportive space to explore them

🤝 You are drawn to ways of working that focus on presence, connection, and responsiveness

🌀 You are willing to slow down, explore your own ways of being in a group, and learn through direct experience

🗣️ You are open to sharing your perspectives, questions, and practices in an international learning environment

The Journey Continues: After the Programme

Play.full.nest is designed to plant seeds that keep growing after the mobility, with a three-month period for exploration and experimentation:

🎲 Play Locally: experiment with playful qualities, tools, or activities in your own youth work or community contexts

🔄 Share the Flow: share ideas, reflections, or practices with colleagues and your organisation

🎨 Co-Create: contribute to a shared digital space with short reflections, notes, or visuals

🪺 Stay Nested: reconnect with the group in an online follow-up meeting

Project Timeline

💻 September to October 2026: online preparation

🛬 9 November 2026: arrival day at the Olde Vechte Foundation in Ommen

🎓 10 to 17 November 2026: eight-day training course

👋 18 November 2026: departure day

🌍 November 2026 to February 2027: local implementation

🔁 March 2027: online follow-up meeting

Who Can Apply

This training is open to youth workers, educators, facilitators, social workers, and community practitioners aged 18 and over, including those new to youth work. It is aimed at participants from the following countries: 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇨🇿 Czechia, 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇱🇻 Latvia, 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇵🇱 Poland, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇸🇮 Slovenia, and 🇪🇸 Spain.

Accommodation and Food

🏡 The training takes place at the Olde Vechte Group Accommodation in Ommen, the Netherlands

🥗 All meals are freshly prepared and primarily vegan, with a focus on seasonal ingredients; dietary requirements, allergies, and intolerances are accommodated where possible

🚭 The programme follows an alcohol- and drug-free policy throughout

Travel and Practicalities

Accommodation, food, materials, and travel costs are covered by the Erasmus+ programme and Wonder Foundation. For each country there is a maximum reimbursable amount, and green travel (train, bus, carpooling) is strongly encouraged. Indicative travel reimbursement limits:

💶 Slovenia €417 (green) / €309, Czechia €417 (green) / €309, Poland €417 (green) / €309, Netherlands €56 (green), Spain €309, Romania €309, Latvia €309, Greece €309, Bulgaria €309

New to Erasmus+ and curious about the role of youth workers in these projects? Read this first: https://youthworkshub.org/15128/

How to Apply

Read the infopack carefully, then complete the online application form. As part of the application, you must submit a short video introduction; applications without a video cannot be considered. By applying, you commit to the entire learning journey, including preparation, the training course, local implementation, and the online follow-up. All applicants will hear back on 25 August 2026.

👉 Apply here: https://forms.gle/keBv3EZ3JScMCdTQ9