WHAT IS IT?

Healthy Inclusion through Art is a 24-months Cooperation Partnership in the field of Youth that involves seven organisations from six countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain). The main aim of this project is to improve the social inclusion of young people suffering from disorders and/or emerging mental health symptoms through a youth work methodology based on the development of talents and artistic interests of young people.

The main objectives of the project are:
‑To develop the key competences of youth workers and other professionals in the field of youth in conceptualising, recognising and addressing emerging mental health disorders and symptoms that hinder the social inclusion of young people;
‑To offer young people at risk of social exclusion due to emerging mental health disorders and/or symptoms, opportunities for personal and professional development through artistic disciplines;
‑To exchange experiences, good practices, tools and methodologies based on artistic disciplines between organisations and professionals from six European countries, which favour the recovery of young people with emerging mental health disorders and/or symptoms and their social inclusion;
‑To design new educational tools to enable professionals in the field of youth to offer young people with emerging mental health disorders and/or symptoms an effective pathway to early recovery and social inclusion;
‑To create an international network of organisations, active in the youth field, that use art as a tool for the social inclusion of young people suffering from emerging mental health disorders and/or symptoms.

Duration of the project: 01/06/2024 – 31/05/2026 [24 months]

The main activities are:
‑First Coordination meeting in Ireland;
‑Meetings to present the Project;
‑International Seminar between coordinators and experts in Greece;
‑Creation of an Online Training Course (OTC) to develop youth workers’ competences in conceptualising, recognising and addressing emerging mental health disorders and symptoms that hinder the social inclusion of young people;
‑First Multiplier Events to present and disseminate the OTC in each project country;
‑Implementation of the OTC, including a face-to-face evaluation meeting for competences assessment and validation in each country;
‑Mid-term Coordination Meeting in The Netherlands;
‑Creation of an eBook in seven languages compiling the training materials of the OTC;
‑Creation of new practical tools for professionals in the field of youth to promote the inclusion of young people with emerging mental health disorders and/or symptoms through 4 artistic disciplines (Music/Singing; Theatre; Dance/Body Movement Expression; Plastic/visual Arts);
‑Implementation of the new tools with young people;
‑Second International Seminar in Italy to validate the created tools and exchange experiences, good practices and art-based working methodologies;
‑Improvement and adaptation of the tools after their implementation;
-Artistic creations in each country, conceived, prepared, developed and implemented by young people, together with professionals/artists;
-International Meeting of Artistic Creation in Portugal between young people and professionals in the field of youth;
‑Drafting of a publication in seven languages compiling the artistic creations;
‑Drafting of a Tool-kit in seven languages with the created and validated tools;
‑Second multiplier events in each country (except Spain, as it hosts the Final Conference);
‑Editing of a final video summarising the project and experiences;
‑Final Evaluation Meeting and Conference in Spain.