UN Youth Seychelles is a Youth-Led, non-profit NGO focused on youth empowerment, building leadership skills, and promoting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The Youth Coaching Programme, a four-sessions workshop targeting two groups of inspiring male and female participants commenced in June 2023. The Programme is part of our flagship initiative the Silver lining Project (SLP) and has been well received with positive reviews and engaging sessions by the participants. Through these workshops facilitated by Psychologists Mr. Jimmy Petrousse and Lecturer/Counsellor Mrs. Naomi Vidot participants have explored topics such as Self Awareness, interpersonal relationships, mindfulness, attachment style and wellbeing. The Youth Coaching Programme will be coming to an end on September 2nd, 2023, through a Certificate Ceremony.
On July 29th, UN Youth Seychelles (UNYS) hosted the sixth Youth Coaching Workshop as part of the Silver Lining Project and received a reception of male participants. As in the former session held with female counterparts, participants ranging from 15 -35 years old shared their social backgrounds whilst learning the importance of interpersonal relationships.
Furthermore, the effects of trauma and how a person responds when faced with such obstacles were discussed. The prevailing theme of discussion was how the attachment style of an individual is developed in their early years and dependent on the environment in which they are raised. The participants further provided their perspective on how society dictates to what extent and the way a male participant is allowed to express himself. The session ended with a discussion of the impact of good family support. There are three more sessions left in the youth group coaching programme and we cannot wait to interact more with the participants in the upcoming topics.
Another Group Coaching Session with the Girls and Young Woman. The theme for the session was Interpersonal Relationships covering parent- child relationships, friendships, romantic relationships. We unpacked the various relationships and their positive and negative impact on a person’s life especially a child. The discussions involved primarily parent-child relationships touching on life experiences and challenges as well as good nurturing homes. The various Attachment styles were explained namely: Secure, insecure, anxious/avoidant, Ambivalent Resistant, disorganized/disoriented.
A twist to the discussion was realities around the 5-love languages in which various personalities express and receive love which caused more openness and understanding towards others. The second half of the session focused on trauma and several trauma responses namely Flight, fight, freeze and fawn. The participants learned more about the dangers of unhealed trauma and what it may look like. A constant point raised throughout the session was society’s perception and actions which sometimes is not empathetic towards individuals going through trauma or loss. To conclude the session the resources to handle trauma and develop resilience was shared, which is what we refer as the “Silverlining”, placing focus on attitudes, behaviours, relationships etc. A key advise from the session is to seek an Emphatic Witness or someone who might have experienced the situation, when facing such realities. UN Youth Seychelles would like to thank the participants for their deep interest in the topic and their contribution, the presenters for the delivery and MCB Seychelles who supported with the space for the session.
Self Awareness Session - Youth Coaching Programme
Young Males got the chance to express themselves as well on the topic with great focus on their own experiences as young adults. On Saturday July 8, 2023 the fourth Youth Coaching Workshop was held with a record of 27 participants primarily boys. The main theme was Self Awareness with discussions on topics such as drugs, relationship and peer pressure. As the session progressed the participants continued to share their points of views and solutions, they felt could be used to tackle these problems. The enthusiasm and eagerness could be felt especially when working on their timelines.
finished with the introductions, now the Youth Coaching Workshop becomes more focused with separate platform for female and male. On July 1, 2023, the female workshop kicked off. The main topic explored was Self Awareness and some key issues faced by woman such as teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment, assumption relating to career driven woman vs traditional roles. These sparked hot debates amongst the group and the participants remarkably shared their perspectives, experiences and solutions to some of these issues.
The second Youth Coaching workshop was held on Saturday June 24th, 2023, with 8 participants who missed the first introductory workshop. The main message put across was that building resilience is imperative to facing the world's challenges especially as an adult. The 8 dimensions of life was discussed, and the participants shared their experiences and perspectives. All participants engaged and contributed toward the various points raised with new ideas. One participant from President's Village noted that the workshop was not what they expected and that they could see the potential benefit of them.
The Introductory session was held on June 17 at ICCS conference room. Participants discussed as a group what they expected to gain from the sessions, understanding the raison-d'etre of the programme and why they decided to join the workshop. They also discussed what is a meaningful life and what is the purpose of life.
Shortly, after they moved on to discuss about the meaning of resilience, how one builds resilience and different types of skills to attain resilience, such as self awareness, self confidence and responsibility.
The participants also learned about the eight dimensions of life/wellbeing. They emphasised on the importance of saving, how to have self control over your emotions and how human connection is important. Participants were very engaged whereby they all gave their different opinions. The discussions then dove deeper into understanding the meaning of loneliness, anxiety and depression.
The session concluded with discussions on different issues in Seychelles such as the education system, mental health care and the lack of maintenance. Focus was placed on a few statistics in Seychelles and their effects. Overall, the participants were highly engaged and responsive. They often raised concerns and asked questions which kept the discussion flowing. UNYS thanks everyone who made the day and project a success. We are looking forward to next week's session.
Youth Coaching Programme
UN Youth Seychelles is proud to announce its Youth Group Coaching Programme under the Silverlining Project. The Programme comprise of several workshops spread out over the months of June to August 2023 catering to Male and Female separately delivered by experienced Psychotherapist Jimmy Petrousse (Mr). The objective of these workshops is to help young people build resilience towards the 8 Dimensions of Life, have better grasp of themselves and clear understanding of how their past has shaped their personality and much more.
UNYS Celebrates 6 Years of youth leadership and volunteerism
The Silver Lining Formations workshop 2022
UN Youth Seychelles (UNYS) successfully hosted the Silver Lining Formation Workshop over two days at the Eden Bleu Hotel with the aim of cultivating a culture whereby youth appreciate and develop their life dimensions, well-being, and self-awareness as a means of building resilience and personal harmony in the community. The workshop showcased the importance and impacts the different Life dimensions have on individuals their lives and what action one can take to develop these dimensions. To promote holistic development and build resilience through the 8 dimensions of life/ wellbeing.
The target group were youth aged between 12-35 years and approximately 60 youth participated in the event. Two awards were given won by Yoan Aglae for the Best Participation Award (This Award is given to the partaker who participates the most throughout the workshop and also engages in a way that makes the workshop better for other participants through question answered, the questions asked and physical activities) and Rishon Bastienne for the Silverlined Award (This Award is presented to the participant who has displayed most growth in the workshop. This can be seen through increased participation, attentiveness, sharing of views during the workshop and sometimes changed behavior)
Spotlight Series - What is your financial take on the pandemic?
The Covid-19 pandemic has surely left its impact on economies but let’s not forget about the effect that it had on the everyday individual that had hopes and dreams that this pandemic has washed away. We took the time to ask you what this pandemic taught you in terms of your financial matters and ways in which it has made you rethink your financial decisions.