Youth Hub: A safe space for teenagers
Youth Hub: A safe space where teens’ thoughts, emotions, and mistakes are understood and embraced
At the Youth Hub by RAA, we aim to offer Romanian and Ukrainian teenagers, overwhelmed by various problems, a meaningful alternative for spending their free time. The life stories of the teenagers who come to the Hub are not always the happiest. Some of them are scared, sad, anxious, and restless from the beginning.
Whether they come to us recommended by family, or friends, or find us through social media, after a few visits, we start to see changes.
Our first meeting with Ukrainian teenagers took place in May 2022, at the National Library of Romania.
“On the opening day, many teenagers came. They were shy, frustrated, had no friends, were far from home, felt lost, and stayed apart from each other”, recalls Ksenia Kozlovskaya, our youth worker.
But at the next meeting, some teenagers started to communicate and, over time, became more open and they even started to meet outside the center.
A safe, informal environment – a place with a little structure in a sea of freedom
In the first months of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, our intervention was mainly about processing the trauma of war.
Now, besides social interaction, the Hub offers the opportunity to participate in recreational and cultural activities, simultaneously working on developing soft skills.
Recently, we visited Youth Hub, now located in a building in Bucharest, on Strada Tunari Nr. 16.
We asked a few of them to remember their first day at the Hub. We found them preparing for the dance class. The first to respond was a teenage girl who spoke Romanian.
She is 15 years old and spent part of her life in Italy. She discovered us through her teacher in May 2023.
Her first visit felt a bit overwhelming: young people from different cultures playing billiards, ping-pong, and PlayStation. She had never seen them all together, but after a few meetings, she got used to it. Now she likes the multiculturalism here.
Another 15-year-old girl from Ukraine felt very good when we talked to her because she hadn’t been to the Hub for a long time and now, finally, she was back. She came to us this year, at the end of spring.
A friend and former colleague named Nazar told her about this place. At first, she was a little scared and didn’t understand what was happening, but the other teenagers accepted her, she made new friends, and she started to like it more and more.
Exploring different skills
Our youth workers and the guests we bring in help participants explore different skills, whether social, emotional, or cognitive.
The workshops we organize daily are information and education sessions on topics such as mental health, human rights, inclusion, and diversity, as well as cultural, social, and entertainment events.
They found our recent Halloween party fun. They did special makeup and costumes, and most of them stayed until the end. Regarding workshops, Ksenia noticed that young people like to create things with their hands, such as various decorations.
Some of them like to dance or paint. Other teenagers have improved their English skills in our classes and fondly remember the various projects we developed especially for them over the past year.
Today’s teens face much greater challenges than 10 years ago
The teenagers who come to the Hub have been open and shown us the complexity of their world. However, we wanted to consult a specialist to understand them even better.
We talked to Viorel Roman, Executive Director at the Association Aliat for Mental Health and a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist with experience in addictions at the Aliat Clinic in Bucharest, about the challenges teenagers face today.
In his opinion, today’s teenagers face incomparably more challenges than just ten years ago: “The accessibility of addictive substances and behaviors (gambling, video games, apps, food, shopping, etc.) is much higher. The pressure exerted by social media is recent and something that affects their sleep, exposes them to bullying, and false news, and gives them unrealistic views of other people’s lives and life in general. Mental health problems appear very early, their parents are increasingly stressed, increasingly tired, and less available, and they face the general stress caused by the pandemic and the outbreak of a war close to us. And these are just a few of the challenges they face.”
Youth Hub: A safe space where teens feel seen, heard, and accepted
Ksenia, the youth worker, perceives the teenagers as united during this difficult time for them, at this difficult age.
Moreover, all the youth workers at the Hub tell us that some evenings the teenagers don’t want to go home because they feel so good at the center: “Every time I see them coming here with pleasure, with joy, so it’s good that they choose to come to us.”
The teenagers accept Ksenia as a friend, but also as an adult, they know they can rely on her.
Another young man, 18 years old, started coming to the Hub a month ago. He says he met people here who speak Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, and especially English.
They talk about music, art, computer games, science. Discussions with teenagers from his country helped him. He participated in the soap-making workshop and sometimes came to play bass guitar and studied a little Romanian.
Viorel Roman says that for teenagers, “A safe space is where they feel seen, heard, and accepted, with their thoughts, emotions, mistakes, or errors, where the fear of being judged or criticized diminishes considerably. Whether it’s 20 minutes spent in the car with a parent on the way home, in the company of a teacher or friends, or a psychologist, a safe space can be created anywhere if the above conditions are met. Teenagers need as many ‘safe spaces’ as possible to reduce potential toxic stress.”
The family, social, and school environment influences everyone’s trajectory
According to a brief UNICEF snapshot on the mental health of children and adolescents in Romania, published in September 2022, children and adolescents facing mental health problems are at risk of unhealthy and risky behaviors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and drugs, or risky sexual behaviors.
But how important is the environment in which teenagers develop?
“If genetics can be seen as a loaded gun, then the environment can be the trigger”, says Viorel Roman. “The family, social, and school environment influences everyone’s trajectory. The more adverse experiences we encounter in childhood, the higher the risk of developing physical, and mental health problems, or addiction. Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, physical or emotional neglect, family dysfunctions such as separation, divorce, violence, and school bullying create long-term, toxic stress that, if untreated, can affect the entire life of the teenager”, warns the expert.
In recent years, the age at which some teenagers adopt habits that risk mental health has decreased. What factors influence the adoption of a vice at such a young age?
“Because accessibility is easier and much higher today, but besides this factor, if we talk about such an early onset, we can certainly investigate mental health problems, family dysfunctions, and adverse experiences that generate toxic stress. We also talk about the lack of parental supervision and monitoring, peer pressure, or the desire to belong to a group where there may also be older teenagers. Certainly, an early onset signals a much more serious problem than smoking itself.”
Unfortunately, we also have young people at the center who have been smoking since they were 14-15 years old. They tell us they started because of their group of friends and intend to quit.
We need more youth centers
What makes a teenager prefer a group where addictive substances are consumed over a youth center or outdoor activities?
The Aliat representative believes the answer can be given if we had such youth centers everywhere or a developed sports and leisure infrastructure.
What if we had a Youth Center in every locality in Romania? How many teenagers’ stories could we rewrite? Adolescence is a difficult transition period full of challenges.
However, we, as adults, have the power to provide young people with the right tools to imagine and build their future, leveraging their resources.
Youth centers represent a long-standing practice, adapted to modern contexts and needs, transforming into resource-rich places for educational, personal, and professional development, and above all, spaces dedicated to teenagers and young people.
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