SafeSpace4Youth

<< Background >>According to various EU, UNICEF and OECD reports, most mental health issues, disorders and illnesses emerge during the adolescent and formative years. These years are crucial for young people who need to cultivate habits, routines, and behaviours in support of positive mental health. Mental health issues affecting young people are more prevalent in today's society as triggers like FOMO, social anxiety, social media validation, virtual identities, climate anxiety, are now commonplace in our vocabulary when describing youth mental health. These issues, in addition to more established illnesses like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia etc. all create serious and mounting mental health concerns that affect young people today. In implementing this project we addressed the following needs:1) train youth workers to use social action as an approach to promote youth mental health and employability skills2) support youth workers to have the confidence, capacity and competence to create safe space where youth needs can be openly identified and discussed3) equip young people with the skills and tools to manage their mental health and act as peer leaders in their local communities addressing the growing mental health issues<< Objectives >>The project aimed to develop high-quality, evidence-informed outputs that offer great value for money and can be transferred to other countries and educational contexts, given the global nature of the issues we addressed.For the project target groups, we sought to address their needs as follows: 1) for youth workers, youth health professionals and those working directly with young people, they will improve their competences in coaching and training delivery, gaining a broader understanding of relevant practices in other countries. Empowering and reinforcing youth workers’ capacity on mental health through social action will allow them to provide more quality, creative and innovative support to young people, especially to those who are marginalised.2) for our youth target groups, they will enhance their life skills and employability prospects through the learned experience of using the new toolkit and compendium of digital learning resources. Especially those who are marginalised, they are better equipped with the knowledge and the skills required for sharing their opinion concerning their own mental health, defining and expressing their goals and ambitions and actively engaging in their local communities.<< Implementation >>We developed a professional development program toolkit to support youth workers to develop their skills and approaches through a:1) Wellness and Wellbeing coach toolbox providing a step-by-step guidance and recommendations for creating and facilitating a safe space for youth2) Social Action Toolkit and accompanying Train-the-Trainer Programme that will build the skills and competences of youth workers to facilitate social action as a valid methodology and approach for youth engagement and employability3) Peer Leadership Programme for youth accompanied by the Kick-start-Fund project for local social action campaignsThe youth workers were trained and supported by:1) training them as wellness coaches to support prevention and early intervention measures in terms of mental health 2) helping them create safe space to address mental health issues with marginalised youth 3) facilitating a virtual LTTA for youth workers to deepen their understanding of youth mental health and improving employability skillsThe young people were trained to become peer leaders and plan and implement their local social action projects supporting mental health awareness. With these activities they enhanced their project management and team work skills<< Results >>1)Training needs analysis and Competence framework for CPD programme for youthworkers2) Wellness and Wellbeing coaching scheme providing a step-by-step guidance and recommendations for creating and facilitating safe spaces for youth. 3) Social Action Toolkit and accompanying Train-the-Trainer Programme building the skills and competences of youth workers to facilitate and introduce social action 4) Virtual LTTA for youth workers5) 2 day training programme for youthworkers in each country to support the local implementation of the Toolkit. 6)TNA workshops and analysis for Peer Leadership Programme for youth7)Peer Leadership Programme (4 modules), Tutors Handbook, Distance travel tool to measure behavioural changes amongst the trained youth8)Peer Youth Leader training events in each country, where young people completed the PLP modules and prepared for their social action initiatives9)Kick-Start Fund youth-led campaigns – three local social action projects (one per country) conceived and led by the trained peer leaders to promote mental health awareness in their communities.10)A project website with an e-learning platform hosting all resources as Open Educational Resources (OER) in three languages (English, Czech, Spanish