Last few years, all around the world have faced various situations which first started the pandemic Covid-19. This pandemic, which we have experienced after a long time as humanity, has had negative effects in terms of economic, social, and mental health. With the closures, this situation reached its highest point. It has occurred in various crises in many countries. It is one of the institutions most affected by the health sector situation. The inability of young people and children to leave the house has had various psychological effects on them.Covid-19 has strained the mental health of young people – closed schools, isolation at home, domestic violence, loneliness, poor social connections, loss of friends and lack of opportunities to experience something new are just some of the reasons for the following issue.
For all these reasons, Ukrainian young citizens need as much help as possible these days. It is important to ensure that as many opportunities as possible are provided to assist people’s development and well-being while living in war zones or trying to start a new life in other countries. Young people who had to leave their country, their home and family behind and live in a new country. This project supports them and their mental health through various activities. Therefore, various activities related to mental health, art, and culture will be held together.
The project is prepared by young people from the local community in Trnava in cooperation with Ukrainian young people. Within the project, we will organize activities that will support the mental health of young Ukrainians through art therapy and other workshops related to mental health. The project aims to assess how war affects the psychological well-being and mental health of young people. In that way, the aim is to focus on targeted interventions and preventive measures which can help the affected.
The main activity of the project will be a 6 monthly research and workshop program between the 1st of February – the 30th of July 2023. It will be carried out in Trnava, Slovakia, and a total of 120 participants will take part. Each workshop will be 20 participants which are 12 young Ukrainian people, 2 youth workers, and 6 local young people. The project consists of phases of preparation, implementation of the workshops, follow-up, and evaluation, including dissemination and visibility. The tasks and responsibilities have been divided equally between youth workers and art therapy experts.
In the first month of the project, 2 youth workers will start to research best practices around the world based on mental health methods for art therapy. They will create a toolkit that includes workshop techniques and methodology solutions for mental health. The toolkit will be used for selected workshop implementations. Also, the toolkit will be used after the project by other participants or other NGOs, youth workers, and artists who want to solve mental health even individually or with workshops in their community. This will be used to solve and spread awareness of the mental health of youth workers and other participants.
Project reference: 11089.1.PA.2023 Power of Mental Health
Venue: Trnava, Slovakia
The project will be carried out with the support of the European Youth Foundation.
