Generating Resilient Outcomes for Wellbeing

<< Background >>Our project started from the common need of addressing early school leaving and low scholar performance, from a mental health perspective, within youth disadvantaged groups, as the lack of interventions can have long term effects in the whole community such as unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. This specific problem is both related to the individual, meaning their familial and socio-economic context, as well as it is a social problem caused by difficulties related to learning, social skills related issues, lack of motivation, counseling and orientation. Mostly the same problems can cause low academic performance, which can lead to losing motivation linked to educational success. The European Union, on average, has a dropout rate of 10.2%, with Spain and Romania leading the continent with the highest rates at 16% and 16.4% respectively, at the time of writing the need of this project, while countries such as Czech Republic and Greece have better overall statistics, making it an opportunity of sharing good practices in the consortium in order to offer young people a safe space in which they can enjoy non-formal educations, sessions of discussions on mental health and a place to gather and socialize.<< Objectives >>1. Tackling early school leaving and low scholar performance within disadvantaged youth groups from small urban and rural areas through the exchange of good practices in the field of educational psychology. On long term, we aim to promote mental health care in order to improve student motivation, increase resilience and promote a growth mindset. 2. Increasing quality in the work and activities of the NGOs involved in implementing inclusive projects and integrating vulnerable communities, while at the same time, of the educational psychologists and teachers involved. Through the exchange of good practices in the field of educational psychology, the organisations involved will broaden their knowledge to tackle issues such as school dropout, bullying and special needs of disadvantaged groups in the community.3. Ensuring capacity growth of the organisations, institutions and actors involved to work transnationally, to adapt new approaches in working with disadvantaged youth groups within the community and to empower the small community of young people in the area. Through alternative methodologies and instruments, the organisation would be able to empower young people towards a growth mindset<< Implementation >>Research: identifying 8 clearly structured methods in each participating country, having a total of 32 methods, that educational psychologists, youth workers, NGOs and teachers can use in their work with disadvantaged youth groups in order to foster educational value, a growth mindset and inclusions in schools through interviews with relevant actors in the field and individual research. Training course (methodology workshop): we brought together 5 youth and educational workers, summing up a total of 20 experts in each country, in a practical session of understanding and putting in practice the methods found through the research stage. Local activities: In the local activities phase, we empowered the experts who took part in the training course to facilitate activities based on the previously learned methods, for 150 disadvantaged young people, who struggle with low scholar performance, low self esteem, issues related to bullying or emotional management, for the course of two months. There were in total 8 meetings with each disadvantaged groupDissemination: we promoted the results of our project in schools, offering the manual of methods and brochures for our project for the teachers in the schools involved in the project.<< Results >>Research: A handbook comprising of 120 pages, available in the languages of the consortium and in English, which has as content a short presentation of the project’s objectives and visibility of the EU funding, an introduction of best practices gathered by each partner organisation related to activities on enhancing academic achievement, mindful learning, overall well-being of young people through different types of initiatives at national level in each of the participating countries. Training Course: A training format and a training course we have developed for the 20 experts from each organisation that helped us develop the competencies of the staff we work with and enabled us to implement the local activities, encouraging at the same time network and exchange of experiences within the groups of experts.Local activities & dissemination: Dissemination materials such as flyers, posters, brochures and notebooks that helped us increase the visibility of the project.