Blog - Zarika Association

Yes, and… Go! | Training Course

What? Zarika Association is excited to invite you to an immersive Erasmus+ training course: "Yes, and... Go! Entrepreneurial Resilience Through Improv." This project is designed for youth workers, trainers, facilitators, educators, and anyone working with young people who want to explore entrepreneurship in a more practical, creative, and human way. For us, entrepreneurship is not about business creation or financial models. It is a mindset. It is about having the confidence to take initiative, navigate uncertainty, communicate your ideas clearly, collaborate effectively with others, learn from failure, and turn creative ideas into tangible actions. The main methodology of this training is improvisational theater. Through active "learning by doing"—including games, scenes, storytelling, role-play, and group challenges—you will practice active listening, reacting to the unexpected, taking creative risks, accepting…

Testimonial: Co-Flow Training Course

By Nikol Parvanova My name is Nikol, I am a senior in university and had never gone on an Erasmus+ program before. This article is not only my way to disseminate the practices and takeaways from the first one I went on, but also a raw self-reflection of how the experience changed my perspective on sooo many levels. (Also my first time writing such an article.) There are two types of people when it comes to what their email inbox looks like: one keeps it clean and tidy, with all the important emails read and replied to, while the second has subscribed to a dozen newsletters that they never open. Well, if you are reading this, you have probably gathered which type of person I am. So,…

Open Call for ESC Volunteering: Find YOUR Place, Connect, and Contribute with PIRINvolve in Bansko, Bulgaria!

Are you ready to turn your ideas into action, build real-life skills, and make a meaningful difference? Zarika Association is thrilled to announce the open call for PIRINvolve, a 5-month European Solidarity Corps (ESC) volunteering project. We are looking for four passionate young people to join our team in the beautiful mountain town of Bansko, Bulgaria, from November 3rd, 2026, to April 2nd, 2027 (151 days of project activity + 2 travel days). Before reading further, you can check out the Full PIRINvolve Infopack for a complete overview of the project, accommodation, and activities! About the PIRINvolve Project At Zarika, we believe in a world with less apathy and more empathy. Our mission is to create spaces where young people discover their potential, connect with inspiring peers,…

“Just Be Yourself”…But Which Self?

Oscar Wilde once famously said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” Then, Ralph Waldo Emerson added, “Be yourself, even when your voice shakes, even when your truth feels inconvenient, because a life built on pretending will always feel like a house you can’t fully rest in.” And then, apparently, “be yourself” even became a verb (Or so does the Shift Your Perspective pin claim on Pinterest) meaning, “Just be who you want to be, not what others want to see.” I remember being in middle school and discovering these boards on Pinterest for the first time… Saving and reposting them to seem “cool” and “different” from the rest of the teenagers… But what I didn’t realize at the time was that firstly, thousands of others were doing…

Connect and Flow: Exploring Connection Through Acro Yoga and Theater Improvisation

In June 2026, youth workers, educators, and facilitators from different countries came together in Croatia for the Erasmus+ training course "Connect and Flow" or Co-Flow, an experiential learning journey exploring how movement, creativity, trust, and collaboration can strengthen personal development and youth work practice. The training course combined two powerful methodologies: Acro Yoga and Theater Improvisation. While Acro Yoga invited participants to build trust, communication, and body awareness through partner-based movement, Theater Improvisation offered tools for spontaneity, creativity, active listening, adaptability, and co-creation. Together, these approaches created a unique learning environment where participants could step outside their comfort zones, embrace uncertainty, and discover new ways of connecting with themselves and others. Zarika Association was proud to be a partner organization and send four amazing participants to this…

Play.full.nest | Training Course

What? Zarika Association is excited to share with you this wonderful training course opportunity, which is hosted by our partner organization Wonder Foundation. Play.full.nest is an international Erasmus+ Training Course designed for youth workers, educators, facilitators, social workers, community practitioners and anyone supporting the learning and wellbeing of young people. Over eight immersive days, participants will explore how playfulness can become a powerful resource for personal growth, meaningful relationships and professional practice. Rather than treating play as a collection of games or techniques, this training approaches playfulness as a mindset rooted in curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, humour, wonder and connection. Through experiential and non-formal education, participants will engage in a learning journey that combines personal exploration with practical application. The programme includes embodied movement, creative exploration, reflection, co-design sessions,…

How To Care Without Being Consumed

A 2300-year-old philosophy for the age of doomscrolling How is it that you can feel everything and nothing at the same time? The alarm goes off – the first of many that you had set up not to be late for work. You open your eyes and hit snooze for the first couple, then the sensitive period of “almost-running-late” arrives, and you finally decide to wake up. You don’t get up though, not right away, at least. You feel paralyzed. You went to bed last night scrolling through videos of all sorts of suffering, and yet, before you even step foot on the ground, you open your favorite social media app again and continue. Two minutes turn to five, five to ten, and ten to thirty. Without…

B.E.A.T. – Bridging Europe Across Tunes | Youth Exchange

What? Zarika Association is excited to share with you a wonderful youth exchange on the topic of music, which is hosted by our partner organization Cilento Youth Union. Welcome to "B.E.A.T. - Bridging Europe Across Tunes". The B.E.A.T. project has as its main objective to promote social inclusion, intercultural dialogue and active participation among young people living in rural areas through music and artistic expression. The project aims to counter prejudice, stereotypes and forms of social isolation that can emerge in territories where opportunities for cultural exchange and international encounters are limited. By creating a space for collective artistic creation and European cooperation, B.E.A.T. seeks to strengthen young people's sense of belonging to a diverse and inclusive Europe, while demonstrating how culture can become a powerful tool for…

The Project is Over: A Practical Guide on How to Beat the Post-Erasmus+ Blues

You come back home after an Erasmus+ mobility and everything feels slightly strange. A week ago, you were surrounded by people from different countries, sharing meals, ideas, inside jokes, emotional reflections, late-night conversations, energizers, workshops, cultural evenings and plans to change the world. Now you are back in your usual routine, your suitcase is half-unpacked, your group chat is still active but less chaotic, and somehow ordinary life feels a little too quiet. This feeling is real. Many participants experience what we can call the “post-Erasmus+ blues”: the emotional drop after an intense international experience. It can feel like sadness, nostalgia, lack of motivation, disconnection, or even confusion about what to do next. The good news? This feeling does not mean the project is over. In many…

M.A.G.I.C | Training Course

What? Zarika Association is excited to share with you this wonderful training course on the topics of mentoring and coaching in youth work, which is hosted by our partner organization Masterpeace. We are looking for 24 active youth workers (trainers, mentors, coaches, project coordinators, educators, etc.) who are directly involved with young people, are eager to deepen their supporting skills and are from Italy, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Croatia or Slovenia. We developed the M.A.G.I.C project to share and exchange coaching and mentoring tools that have been successfully used in work with young people. To ensure a holistic and complex approach, we based our training on the Dilts pyramid, which claims that every situation can be viewed, analysed and solved on different levels and, depending on it, with…