Bridge for mental health Erasmus Project

Project Title

Bridge for mental health

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Health and wellbeing; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Bridge for mental health was a Strategic Partnership implemented by the Hugarafl organization from Iceland and Minte Forte from Romania, between 1st june 2018 and 31st May 2019.
In this project, 25 youth workers from Iceland and Romania were involved in an exchange of good practices, taking place over the course of one year and consisting of a series of transnational learning, teaching and training activities and local applications of new working practices in the field of youth mental health.
The project’s main goal was to develop a joint framework for mental health promotion in youth, adapted to the realities and needs of young people in Iceland and Romania and reflecting the philosophies of the two organizations. Its specific objectives were to facilitate the transfer and implementation of specific methodologies between youth workers from the partner organizations, regarding the mental health promotion in youth and to lay the foundation of a sustainable network of youth workers from the partner organizations.
The specific good practices that were exchanged are empowerment for recovery of young people with mental health problems and mental health events for young people in the general population, based on non-formal methodologies. The project resulted in the partner organizations improving their capacities to respond to the mental health needs of young people, extending the number of young people they work with and enriching their toolkit of mental health promotion techniques and strategies. For the youth workers involved, the main results consisted of improved competencies to create and implement public psycho-education events, to facilitate non-formal mental health education workshops, to run empowerment services and to be empowered themselves, in their development as well as their work in the youth field.
Bridge for mental health generated two main outcomes to be carried on the long term:
1. the establishment of two new work practices: mental health education events for the general public, organized Hugarafl and an empowerment group led by Minte Forte,for people with mental health challenges in Cluj-Napoca. These practices are bound to extend and improve the activity for prevention and respectively, intervention in mental health, of the two organizations.
2. maintaining a network of youth workers from Iceland and Romania that will continue the exchange of ideas, methods, knowledge and support, both virtually and through potentially new joint projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 53082 Eur

Project Coordinator

Hugarafl & Country: IS

Project Partners

• Asociatia Minte Forte