We are very excited to launch our first Erasmus+ project, starting on 1 March 2025, which will run for 16 months in collaboration with Stichting Paint with Green (The Netherlands) and the Holdkő Cultural Foundation (Hungary). It marks an important step toward integrating emotional resilience and green skills into youth support practices.
The project aims to improve the quality and recognition of youth peer support, focusing on mental well-being and climate anxiety management. Our goal is to promote and raise the profile of peer support work through Europe, which will contribute to reducing early school dropout rates and facilitating integration into the labor market.
We create a handbook in 3 languages with 12 modules for training new peer supporters, which, besides general mental wellbeing, self-awareness, communication skills and media literacy, will have a special attention to eco-emotions and green skills. In the handbook we are going to use innovative methods, we will design an emotion card pack, use various artistic tools and apply gamification.
We facilitate the project through various events and activities. On top of developing the training materials, we will organize:
- A study session and knowledge share forum in The Netherlands
- A pilot training for young people in The Netherlands
- A face-to-face conference in Hungary
- Training sessions for youth workers both in The Netherlands and in Hungary
- An online conference in English with all stakeholders
19-21 May 2025
Our work on the Shield Project officially began with a partner visit to the Netherlands. During this productive three‑day meeting, we had the opportunity to collaborate closely, strengthen our partnership, and exchange expertise.
As part of the program, we visited the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, where we attended an inspiring lecture on innovative pedagogical approaches to sustainability education. We also met with Mental Motion, a peer‑support organisation in Utrecht, gaining valuable insights into Dutch peer‑support practices.
On the final day, we focused on developing the curriculum aimed at addressing and mitigating climate anxiety — the central educational output of the Shield Project.
26-28 August 2025
Between 26-28 August we have held a pilot training of the Shield project in Otterlo in The Netherlands. In order to test our prepared curriculum before releasing it, we recruited 12 students: 6 from the Netherlands and 6 from Hungary; to give us feedback on the sessions.
We have stayed at a lovely vacation park for four days, where the forest provided a green space to hold the training. Besides receiving relevant constructive feedback on the curriculum and seeing it to unfold in real life, cross-cultural connections and memories were made.
The Shield cards
While the module designs were underway, the final form of the Shield cards was completed!
21 cards will help those working with the modules, which participants were able to test during pilot training.
It’s a deck of thought-provoking, inspiring cards created by one of our talented colleagues that can help spark conversations and express feelings throughout a workshop, training or even a school lesson. See a selection of them in the below gallery.
SHIELD Youth Conference, Budapest
On 31 January 2026, we held the SHIELD Youth Conference in Budapest, bringing together young people, professionals, and partner organisations for a full day of learning and dialogue. After the event was opened with welcoming remarks by Dr. Márton Bács, Deputy Mayor of Újbuda district, Gabriella Lukács, head of the Holdkő Cultural Foundation, introduced the foundation and the Shield project, followed by Gabriella Vidák, who presented the work of the Dutch partner organisation, the Paint with Green Foundation.
The opening was followed by a roundtable discussion featuring András Kádár (Secretary General of the Jane Goodall Institute), Dr. Katalin Petz (environmental science expert, Paint with Green Foundation), youth worker Bora Reinhardt, and psychologist Zsuzsa Vastag from the Holdkő Foundation. After a short coffee break, participants joined parallel workshops on Hope led by Zsuzsa Vastag and Ivett Mityók‑Pálfalvi, and Future Visions facilitated by Gabriella Lukács and Gabriella Vidák.
Following a sandwich lunch, the programme continued with a conversation with Hanna Farkas, designer of the Shield cards. The afternoon then moved into a World Café session, where small groups discussed youth work, community building, and approaches to climate‑related emotions.
The conference concluded with a plenary session summarising the insights from the World Café and closing remarks by hosts Katalin Csernus and Csaba Czeglédi. It was an inspiring day filled with meaningful conversations, shared learning, and renewed motivation for supporting young people in navigating climate emotions and building hopeful, proactive futures.
Paint with Green Foundation 