Digital Storytelling for Youth Mental Health

<< Background >>Young people nowadays face multiple challenges: social inequalities are rising, social mobility is decreasing; the labour market requires new skills and public education cannot always keep up with these needs; while environmental sustainability is becoming a more and more burning issue. It is not surprising that feelings of anxiety, helplessness, loss of personal integrity are more and more common problems among young people in Europe, made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Young people do not always know how to cope with the rapid changes in digitalisation and social media. All of the partner organisations have been facing issues regarding the digitalization and alienation, and at the same time, we are committed to develop their own digital activities and also contribute to the quality of youth work in Europe. DYME project had a unique approach on coping with challenges of the 21st century, by using digital storytelling and video making to raise awareness about mental health, develop agency of young people in digital environments and support them in building resilience among peers in their communities and last but not least, build the capacity of youth organisations in digital spaces, especially in social media.<< Objectives >>The DYME project used a digital storytelling approach to raise awareness and empower young people to cope with challenges and mental health issues, supporting them in building resilience among peers in their communities. For this, we equipped youth workers with modern communication and development tools. Through applying digital storytelling, featuring first-person stories at the country and local levels, the project allows youth to share and learn from peers’ experiences. We supported young people in designing and delivering awareness campaigns and initiatives that will enable them to be actively engaged in health promotion.Goals achieved:- Competence development of youth workers in digital storytelling and video-making- Development of educational resources, methods and tools for youth workers and young people- Provide educational and peer learning opportunities for young people- Bring mental health issues out of the taboo topics among young people, raise their awareness on mental health- Capacity building of the youth sector in Europe with educational and communication tools adapted to the needs of our time<< Implementation >>Within the DYME project, we implemented the following activities:1. Development of the Digital Storytelling educational programme. The program provides youth workers with the essential knowledge about applying the digital storytelling approach in non-formal education activities.2. Development of Educational resources for Youth Workers, focusing on the train-the-trainer programme for youth workers, facilitators, educators, helping youth workers arrange activities with young people utilising the proposed methods, providing them with activity plans, exercises, and accompanying materials to support young people's learning process.3. Development of educational resources for young people consisting in the development of a Manual for young people, and in the development of bite-sized eLearning resources.4. Development of Video tutorials for youth workers and video tutorials for young people. The video tutorials provide how-to guides for youth workers on how to use the tools available online to support young people in telling their digital stories.Also, a training course for youth workers was implemented, pilot testing activities with youth workers and young people on local level, promotional workshops and an international conference.<< Results >>Through DYME, organisations and youth workers developed skills in digital storytelling which can be implemented in their daily work with youth. Partners became able to support other organisations and individuals in their local environments, encouraging the active involvement of different stakeholders in the field of youth and thus developing a cohesive support environment for young people to reach their full potential in building resilience towards negative impacts of the rapid changes and digitalisation.Concrete outputs and results:- Digital Storytelling Educational Program and Educational resources for youth workers, including a manual and toolkit, a user guide and an e-learning course.- Educational resources for young people, including a manual and a microlearning course.- Video tutorials for youth workers and young people.- 19 youth organisations and approximately 150 youth workers directly involved in the project activities in 5 countries.- Approximately 300 youth workers and 500 young people were educated with the usage of the project results during the project lifetime.- More than 10 000 accounts were reached with the video tutorials and dissemination activities of the project.