Mental Health in Youth Work

Mental Health in Youth Work is a long-term project of the National Agencies of Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps. The project will allow youth workers and young people to get in touch with wellbeing and the promotion of mental health. Over the years, the project will enable youth workers to better understand how they can view mental health as a positive resource in their own and young people’s lives.

The project aims to work on the following four focus areas:

  1. Raising awareness, normalising the concept of mental health, and promoting it as a positive resource
  2. Development of mental health literacy and competences of youth workers
  3. Enabling youth participation and peer-to-peer approach in the promotion of mental health
  4. Increasing the number of projects dealing with mental health topics in the European Youth Programmes.
mental health in youth work
Further Resources on Mental Health in Youth Work
To explore the project in more detail, visit the official project website, where you can find information about the objectives, activities and results:
Explore the website!
Mental Health in Youth Work Inspiring Event Report
The event brought together 116 young people, youth workers and representatives of European Youth Programmes from 13 European countries. The event raised awareness of mental health and showcased methods for promoting mental health of young people and youth workers. The report consists of two parts: The first part is a concise theoretical part explaining mental health, young people's growth and youth work's role in promoting the mental health of young people. The second part is collection of practices and approaches of the young people and youth workers who took part in the event.
Read the report!
MHYH report

Main Activities

1. Creating repeatable training modules for 

  • Youth workers
  • Mentors in European Solidarity Corps volunteering projects
  • Young people in peer-to-peer settings

2.  The Inspirational Event is a large event organised every two years. It highlights all the project’s objectives and involves young adults in a co-creating process of the content and design of the event.

3. We create communication materials that highlight mental health in a positive light and raise awareness on mental health issues.

4. We are creating a guide book for mentors to help them to pay attention on how to support and promote the young volunteers’ mental health during their project.

5. We are running a mapping of mental health related results from KA2, KA153 and ESC30 projects and aim to disseminate good practices and methodology to a wider public through our communication and activities.

Who is involved? 

National Agencies for Erasmus+ Youth and the European Solidarity Corps in Finland (coordinator), Belgium (German-speaking Community), Belgium (Flanders), Belgium (French-speaking Community), Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Slovenia, as well as SALTO Inclusion & Diversity.

Get in touch!

For your questions, reach out to the project coordinator, Paavo Pyykkönen.