The Self-Care City: Bring the Self-Care City to life

Each island contains a fun and engaging audio instruction. All exercises are available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Romanian, Ukrainian, Greek and Farsi. The following exercises are provided:

• Freeze Dance (04:41)
• Body Scanner (06:13)
• 5 Senses Exercise (05:01)
• Everyday Creations (04:02)
• Flower Breathing (04:13)
• Yoga Safari (10:51)

All texts of the audio instructions are available as well over here: X.

Tip: Prepare yourself, listen to the instructions in advance and participate in the activities. It will be easier for the players to follow the instructions if they see them as well.

Four symbols in the corners of the poster can help dive into different self-care activities and get players thinking about which activities they like and help them:

• Paper planes: Discuss activities that people enjoy doing alone or together.
• Hot air balloon: Explore emotions by picking one and discussing what self-care strategies help when feeling that way. Or pick a self-care strategy and discuss how the players feel when doing this activity.
• Compass: Talk about the symbols on the compass and let the players share strategies that help them calm their emotions (heart), body, mind (head) and social interactions (text balloon).
• Traffic light: Use the traffic light to discuss which self-care activities the players do when they feel okay (green) / stressed (orange) / totally overwhelmed (red).

This game is part of the Trauma-Informed Youth Work toolkit, which is designed to create a safe, supportive environment for all participants by acknowledging the impact of trauma on young people and fostering trust and empowerment. By incorporating activities that use indirect methods to explore emotions and behaviours, the toolkit makes sensitive topics more accessible and less intimidating, especially for younger audiences. The teamwork aspects of these activities foster collaboration and support, aligning with trauma-informed principles. This approach promotes healing, resilience, and positive development in every youth engaged, while emphasizing emotional awareness and understanding.

• Draw your island of self-care and add the activities that help you to calm down or to take care of yourself. Think how this island will be, how the ground will be, what elements will there be... The poster can serve as inspiration, but you can also add activities that are not on there. Keep that drawing and every time you need to do something to take care of yourself, choose the activity you fancy.
• As a group activity you can discuss which self-care activities are important for your group. Draw them on an island or write them down. The final handmade poster can decorate your class/place of work, so everybody will have access to it and use activities when they are needed.

• Explore different self-care activities.
• Follow instructions accurately.