The safe space for just living your teenage years
The safe space in youth centers, like Youth Hub by Romanian Angel Appeal, addresses the past, present, and future of teenagers.
We aim to understand why these centers are essential for youth development
Founder of PoveȘTIM, Ana-Maria Anghelescu, will share how she has tried to create a safe space during activities at the Hub, normalizing emotional experiences and the freedom for each young person to express them.
Youth centers around the world
Youth Centers, developed by governments or foundations (sometimes in public-private partnerships), exist in countries like Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Australia, the UK, the USA, and many others.
They provide teenagers with resources in diverse areas, from mental health and social well-being to education and skill development, including vocational training, counseling, and access to educational resources. Youth centers respond to the specific needs of young people.
After half a year of activity at the National Library of Romania, it became clear that a permanent space was needed.
But before asking where this space should be, we started researching what a youth center should look like.
In October 2022, a team of eight youth workers embarked on a study visit to Estonia, visiting 17 youth centers in five days, covering all regions of the country.
The diversity and flexibility of the centers provided a wealth of elements and lessons from which our colleagues extracted valuable information.
For example, they learned about the famous Hub rules: “Take off your shoes at the entrance” and “Your mother doesn’t live here, so clean up after yourself!”
They also observed how the space is organized, identifying key elements such as billiard and ping-pong tables or the Xbox console, and understood the Open Youth Work methodology.
At Youth Hub, we connect young people
From the beginning, we intended Youth Hub to be a safe space for teenagers, with a significant focus on their socio-emotional development.
At the Hub, Romanian and Ukrainian teenagers can meet other young people, build healthy social relationships, and learn to communicate and collaborate.
Here, we (re)discover empathy, self-confidence, and effective stress management techniques. Above all, we find a sense of belonging.
As we have learned from them, the most painful elements in the lives of Ukrainian refugee teenagers are social isolation and loneliness. Step by step, we have built a community.
Teenagers can make informed decisions
We continue to provide Hub participants with resources that can contribute to increasing their resilience and preparing them for the transition to adult life.
Our partners and youth workers have helped us speak the language of teenagers. The young people have gained trust in our youth workers and have become friends.
They feel they have someone to rely on and that at least one adult is always there for them. Our youth workers are not much older than the participants, which perhaps bonds them even more.
The journey of the PoveȘTIM founder alongside Youth Hub teens
Except for short breaks, Ana-Maria Anghelescu, founder of PoveȘTIM, has been present weekly at Youth Hub, bringing the educational method PoveȘTIM, focused on cognitive, emotional, and social development through storytelling, art, and play.
Ana-Maria has been working in non-formal education for ten years as a trainer, facilitator, and program coordinator. The proposal to collaborate with Youth Hub came from our colleague Andreea Negoi, then the center’s coordinator.
Andreea knew the type of intervention and educational programs Ana-Maria offered, and after presenting the “activity menu” (using this metaphor to understand the teenagers’ preferences and needs), the activity began shortly at the National Library.
We bet on the development of Romanian volunteers
In that space near Unirii Square, Romanian volunteers joined us. We bet on their development by giving them the chance to try, fail, and start again.
Ana-Maria recalls the first interactions with the Romanian volunteers at Youth Hub: “They were eager to get involved and help, but at the same time, eager to interact with another culture.”
Gradually, the facilitator tried, through minimal guidance and without judgment, to create a space where each could discover their resources and strengths.
“I hope they learned useful things they can apply in their lives”
At the first workshops, Ana-Maria noticed that Ukrainian teenagers displayed behaviors indicating hypervigilance. It’s no wonder: a harsh context brought them to a new culture, far from home and friends, fearing for themselves and their loved ones.
Step by step, she tried to create a safe space during the activity, then normalize emotional experiences and everyone’s freedom to express them.
At the same time, she addressed the specific needs of any teenager: creating their own identity, affirmation, affiliation, and autonomy. “I hope they learned useful things they can apply in their lives: emotion management, non-violent communication, critical thinking, the creative and playful expression”, says Ana-Maria.
Specifically, the facilitator conducted socio-emotional development workshops through art and play. She lists a few activities, though there were many others of interest to teenagers, who often stayed beyond the allocated time to talk more.
The first example is the board game workshop – which started from a need based on which they built their own game. Then, theatrical improvisation games had a double effect: they were amusing but also allowed them to express certain feelings they might not have otherwise expressed.
“We also explored themes focusing on a strategic approach to one’s life: visualizing long-term goals and breaking them down into small, consistent steps, time management, and accountability buddy.”
What the facilitator gained from working with Youth Hub teens
Ana-Maria Anghelescu uses one word to describe the teenagers: wonderful! But what were the things she learned from them?
“In life, everyone you meet offers a lesson; I learned that human adaptability and resilience are potentials that don’t exhaust easily – especially when you have a supportive group!”, says Ana-Maria.
Perhaps the most fulfilling feedback from the young people consisted of “the questions they bring, the openness they have in sharing their lives with me – joys and obstacles, the fact that they feel comfortable, participate, and allow themselves to discover things about themselves and others in the environment created by the workshops”, believes Ana-Maria.
Meaningful fun
In 2023, Romanian and Ukrainian teenagers participated in various activities. For example, during the summer, Ukrainian teenagers at Youth Hub took on the challenge of an Erasmus Youth project, examining the situation of refugees and migrants.
They later shared their perspective with the world in an awareness activity organized for World Refugee Day.
Fun has a “home.” From serious pizza orders and movie nights to events like karaoke, dance, and quizzes, plus facilities like the billiard room, board games, and PlayStation, Youth Hub by Romanian Angel Appeal is the safe space to live your teenage years freely.
Follow Youth Hub’s activity on Instagram.
