YIMinds

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CURRENT PROJECTS

YIMinds

Youth Information minding young people’s mental health

Project dates
November 2022- September 2024

Coordination
ERYICA

Financed by
Erasmus + KA2

Partners
Harno (Estonia), Centro Regional De Información y Documentación Juvenil (Madrid, Spain), Bundesnetzwerk Österreichische Jugendinfos (Austria), DeAmbrassade (Belgium), Cyprus Youth Council (Cyprus) and IASIS (Greece). YoungScot (Scotland) and Eurodesk – Associated partners.

Goals and activities

For Youth (Information) Workers

• A survey report in which youth information workers had the chance to inform the project about the actions they already take to address young people’s mental health demands and identify their needs in terms of mental health literacy.

• A guide for youth information workers. The guide equips youth (information) work professionals to identify mental health distress among young people, to provide first-hand support, and, when needed, to refer them to specialised services. The mental health professionals were an integral part of the project, as the consortium worked to explore ways of cooperation between them and youth information workers. Young people’s point of view was also included.

• A podcast series. Through the podcast, young people had the opportunity to express themselves about the importance of mental health and well-being. Testimonials of youth information workers dealing with the issues raised by young people are also shown in a sort of dialogue. The podcast primarily targets youth information workers. Most of the practical cases and good practices narrated in the podcast complements the guide.

For Young People

• Awareness raising campaign made by young people. Launched in November 2023, the campaign aimed to reverse the mental health stigma, which often prevents young people from talking about their problems; audiovisual material addressed to young people was created in the framework of the campaign (video testimonials, a mythbuster quiz and static tiles to raise awareness on mental health).

• The "Mind Matters Toolbox”. This toolkit is designed to empower young people by providing resources that help them understand mental health better.

For everyone

• A joint seminar took place in Brussels on 10 September 2024 to present the outcomes of the project. Audience from 10 European countries could share their experience in terms of young people and mental health. We had a panel discussion with a mental health expert, a youth info worker and a young person to discuss the topic. Two workshops in the second part of the day that could be followed by everyone. Playfield of Mental Wellbing, to discover the concept of the playingfield of Mental well-being and reflect on their own youth (information) work practice and another workshop about stress management and resilience.

•  policy recommendations from the project researche and outcomes (focus groups with young people, youth (info) workers, the survey report, national reports on the state of the art on mental health in partners’ countries) for a better advocacy on the topic of young people’s mental health. 9 recommendations that can be adapted at the local, regional, national and European level.

ERYICA’s Youth Ambassadors for Youth Information will be directly involved in the project. Being already engaged in the ERYICA network and the decision-making process, and having been trained on the peer-to-peer approach, they will represent an important asset.