Green-up your Community!Community Gardens for the social inclusion of youth with Social Anxiety Disorder

<< Background >>It is becoming more common nowadays to observe the disaggregation of human bonds (2021, The care collective). What we are losing is the social dimension of care, which became a central topic during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Therefore, the Green-Up! aimed to bring back the relevance that the community and social bonds play in taking care of vulnerable people, as it can be considered as the most important way for achieving inclusion. In particular, the project aimed to foster social inclusion of youth, by developing a prototype of an ideal space, for creating meaningful human bonds inside their community of belonging. Due to the community dimension that the project brings to care for the vulnerable, the prototype has been denominated CARING GARDEN. Community gardens have been chosen, because they bring benefits on many levels: they not only promote healthier lifestyles, but it is demonstrated that the activity of growing and nurturing plants, as well as spending time in a natural and soothing environment, plays an important role for stress relief and mental wellness. Community gardens also help the youth and community members to develop green skills, especially in terms of production and consumption. << Objectives >>Green-Up! Aimed to develop the prototype of a CARING GARDEN: an ideal community vegetable garden designed for the social inclusion of youth suffering from poor mental health (Social Anxiety Disorder): • To produce and share online the prototype of a CARING GARDEN • To improve partner organizations’ capacity to respond to the mental health needs of youth • To facilitate 12 youth workers’ acquisition of new competences • To include young people and the community in the development of the prototype<< Implementation >>Green-Up! was structured in 4 activities for the achievement of its goals: 1.FOUNDATION BRICKS - for the collection of practices on community gardens across the EU 2.Prototyping a CARING GARDEN – it aimed to device the prototype, according to 4 dimensions: 1 Mental health in youth; 2 agenda for community inclusion; 3 Green skills; 4 Landscape for inclusion 3.HACK THE PROTOTYPE – to gather feedback from youth and communities 4.OPEN UP the CARING GARDEN – online upload and share of the prototype.<< Results >>There are two main results in Green Up! Project: 1. an online prototype of the CARING GARDEN 2. The competences of four organizations and at least 12 youth workers improved, and empowered to apply the CARING GARDEN prototype among their communities and with their youth. Collateral outcomes concern an impact and awareness on the four communities of the organizations (prototype experimentations and community assessment), and on vulnerable and non-vulnerable youth with Social Anxiety Disorder (YOUTH HACKATHON)