RECOVER project addresses the rising mental health challenges faced by young people, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project responds to the urgent need for better tools and training to support youth wellbeing, focusing on the early recognition of mental health issues and the empowerment of youth workers.

The main aim of RECOVER is to equip youth workers with the knowledge and practical skills needed to identify early signs of mental health concerns, offer meaningful support, and guide young people toward professional help when necessary. The project applies a human-centred and participatory methodology, especially the Dragon Dreaming Approach, to co-design training programs, practical toolkits, and local interventions together with youth. Project builds inclusive and resilient communities where wellbeing becomes a shared priority through breaking stigma, promoting peer support, and embedding mental health awareness into everyday youth work.

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Objectives of the project:How to support youth mental health if we can’t recognize what is a mental health issue? And on what basis do we advise youth to seek professional support? RECOVER aims to increase the cognitive and practical capacity of youth workers in order to 1. identify the (early) symptoms of mental health and wellbeing issues among youth, 2. to provide meaningful guidance to prevent health-related symptoms from becoming problematic, and 3. support youth in seeking suitable professional help.​

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Implementation of the project:

VALIDATION: carry human-centred analyses to validate identified needs and update work plans and the topics to be tackled.
DEVELOPMENT: co-design respective learning and training materials that convey the necessary competences based on the analyses.
CAPACITATION: empower the youth workers through newly designed outputs such the joint trainings, toolkit and manual.
ADVOCACY: increase the awareness of the community and provide policy recommendations and establish consultations with policymakers.

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Results of the project: 

1: Training on human-centred Participatory Approach for Staff
2: Methodological Manual on human-centred Participatory Approach 
3: Self-Analysis Participatory human-centred Workshops
4: Stocktaking Report of Context-specific Self-Analyses 
5: RECOVER Toolkit for Youth Workers
6: RECOVER Train the Trainers Program
7: RECOVER Local Pilots with young people
8: RECOVER VALORISATION FRAMEWORK and Impact plan
9: RECOVER MEDIA CAMPAIGN and community local events
10: RECOVER Policy Recommendations

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.