HEALTHY HABITS, HAPPY MINDS

PROJECT SUMMARYThe project “Healthy Habits, Happy Minds” was a strategic partnership which involved 5 schools from: Romania- coordinator, Macedonia, Italy, Spain and Portugal.All 5 project partners faced problems with the negative effects of bullying based on body shape, of discrimination on social and economic issues, of high rates of children prone to weight problems and food borne diseases, of lack of interest in physical activities, of risky behaviors and early school leaving. It became imperative to raise awareness of the problem and create a common strategy of prevention and intervention with the necessary tools and activities that were relevant to the needs of the participants. The general objective of the project was to provide quality education for a healthy, balanced and active lifestyle and social inclusion through non –formal education in a safe school environment and a European context. The specific objectives were: -to create an innovative methodology of prevention and intervention in teaching healthy habits and social inclusion. -an improvement with 50% of the target students’ lifestyles, eating habits, social and active life. -trained teachers on social inclusion and non-formal education as a result of the joint training events in the European context, based on exchanges of good practice. The project activities were student-centered and needs-oriented, adapted to heterogeneous groups and different age groups. They were connected to the 3 intervention areas of the project: nutrition and healthy habits, active life and wellbeing, socio-emotional health, and they ensured the involvement of a large number of participants.Within the 32 months of implementation all the partners organized workshops, study trips, sports competitions, cooking lessons, debates, exhibitions, online videoconferences, meetings, and discussion sessions.All planned activities were carried out equal to or larger than it was assumed in the project application. The project also used a large range of methods: learning by doing, indoor and outdoor education, active-participatory non-formal education, counselling, virtual and project based collaboration.The main results of the project include: an e-book - a methodology for teaching healthy habits as an OER for teachers which contains methods, lesson plans and good practices, a handbook for students -“The ABC of healthy habits”, Newsletters, a Health Care Calendar, the project’s website, the e-Twinning project, a project survey with data about the target students’ eating habits, general well-being and bullying phenomenon , an online magazine – “Europe’s Teens in Style”, a Self- Reflection Diary .All the main project results are freely available on the project’s website, on partner schools’ websites, different online educational platforms, and social networks.After the analysis of the satisfaction questionnaires, observations, number of views, group discursions, reports and comparative surveys we can confirm that the partners achieved in full the planned activities and results.Project outcomes:While analyzing the indicators of result, we can conclude that the project helped to:-raise awareness of the importance of a healthy, balanced and active lifestyle - to reduce bad health habits. - to increase interest in outdoor and indoor activities - to enhance knowledge on social inclusion and skills for teachers - to promote collaboration between European schools in order to exchange examples of good practice.The project inspired the partner schools to continue their efforts to raise awareness and create innovative approaches regarding socio-emotional health and social inclusion by implementing in the sustainability period the prevention methodology, by creating new e-Twinning projects, by integrating the activities and the examples of good practice in the extra-curricular activities, the school curriculum and optional courses.It is worth mentioning that the project motivated many people to make a change in the system of pro-health education and to get involved in more Erasmus+ projects.