ŠIPK 2020 Student Innovative Projects emotional intelligence youth neuropsychology ESF

Project Focus

Grounded in contemporary neuropsychological insights, the project addresses the development of emotional and social intelligence among adolescents in distress within the school system. For healthy development, adolescents require safe and relaxed relationships; therefore, the project enables emotional expression and the strengthening of social competencies through workshops, play, and art. The objective is to assist youth in developing emotional literacy, more mature emotional regulation, and improved self-esteem, thereby contributing to their overall life skills and sense of belonging.

Short Project Description

The School of Advanced Social Studies (SASS) has once again been highly successful in the Public Call Project Work with the Non-Business and Non-Profit Sector – Student Innovative Projects for the Benefit of Society 2016–2020.

SASS successfully secured funding for an engaging project where the key participants are students, pedagogical mentors, and non-business entities. The project is designed interdisciplinary and will be implemented from March to the end of June 2020. Interested students are invited to complete the online application form by 21 February 2020.

Students can participate in the ŠIPK project under the following conditions:

  • they have active student status (work conducted via student referral),
  • they are not employed, self-employed, registered as unemployed with the Employment Service of Slovenia, or registered as sole proprietors,
  • participation is open to students who have already participated in PKP or ŠIPK projects in previous years.

The project duration is 4 months, running from 1 March 2020 to 30 June 2020. The remuneration for participation is 5.38 EUR/hour net, with a total pool of 160 hours available per student, which can be flexibly distributed across months.

Project Context: Development of Emotional and Social Intelligence Through Play and Art

The project is built upon contemporary neuropsychological findings proving that safe and relaxed relationships form the foundational environment for developing an adolescent’s mature emotional patterns and social competencies. Adolescents who have the opportunity to express their feelings and emotions, and to engage in emotionally diverse relationships, learn more mature emotional regulation and social skills. This significantly impacts the development of a sense of worth, improving self-esteem and emotional intelligence. They develop emotional literacy and a healthy sense of belonging, learn to stand up for themselves, and distinguish between unsafe and safe relationships.

Through workshops led by the participating students, the project will develop these capabilities in distressed adolescents within the school system. During the workshops, students will simultaneously create innovative artistic tools to foster social competencies and emotional intelligence. These tools will be developed using art, illustrations, and photography.

The final products will subsequently serve as resource tools for teachers and educators who identify adolescents in distress (e.g., an adolescent unable to participate in class due to hyperactivity, falling grades, chronic lateness, lack of motivation, peer conflicts, weak peer cooperation, anxiety, etc.). Utilizing these tools will facilitate creative calming, self-awareness development, functional behavior, stress reduction, and social skills development without requiring the adolescent to be excluded from the group or classroom.

Pedagogical mentor on the project is Assist. Prof. Dr. Andreja Poljanec.

Final Student Products

You can access the tools designed to strengthen adolescents’ emotional intelligence via the links below, along with a manual presenting all the tools and practical ideas for their application in both individual and group work with youth. These materials were crafted by the students participating in the ŠIPK project—Development of Emotional and Social Intelligence Through Play and Art—under the guidance of their mentors.

The purpose of these tools is to make emotional and social intelligence accessible to adolescents and to build it together with them piece by piece. For healthy development, adolescents fundamentally need experiences of emotional intelligence, which are acquired through relaxed and creative socializing with peers as well as emotionally functional adults alongside whom they can connect, create, and grow in a relaxed manner. One of the most appropriate settings for this is undoubtedly the school environment and its related organizations (high schools, student dormitories, youth organizations).