Project Reference: 2021-2-DE04-KA152-YOU-000037924
Topics: Physical And Mental Health, Well-Being – Community Development
Action Type: Mobility of young people
Countries Covered: 🇩🇪 Germany 🇹🇷 Türkiye 🇮🇹 Italy 🇫🇮 Finland 🇷🇸 Serbia
Summary
Objectives
Youth Exchange Programme Countries: Turkey, Serbia, Germany, Finland, and Italy
Venue: Zlatibor, Serbia
Date: February 1-10, 2022
Age limit: 18-25, leaders up to 35 years
No. of participants: 30
Loneliness is the feeling that arises when one’s relationships do not meet one’s social needs. As people’s needs are individual, it is therefore also individual when loneliness arises. Common to many young people is that loneliness arises from shifts in life. For example, it may be if your parents get divorced, you move to a new school or experience death in the family or circle. This is a shared problem between many youngsters since youth is a time in life where one experiences great shifts in both hormone balance and mental development. Besides the traumatic experiences some have, societal pressure is one of the biggest obstacles for young people. High-performance requirements are one of the reasons. Many find that all other young people can live up to this norm of being perfect, therefore, they blame themselves when they can’t live up to the high social standards and many keep it to themselves because they are afraid that others will not understand their feeling on not fitting in.
This project aims to reduce the number of youngsters with mental worries and loneliness. This will be done by creating an awareness of mental health issues among the youngsters, especially focusing on loneliness and helping them help themselves and others to gain a strong and stable mindset for overcoming the social pressure, in a community they are a part of. The youngsters participating will learn how to confront and overcome personal barriers, so they gain confidence in as many achievements as possible.
Activities
Each partner country will bring 5 youngsters to participate in the exchange, Serbia will have 8 because of the staff from the hosting organization so the rest 5 participants will participate equally as the rest of the countries, where there will be worked through non-formal methods in workshops. The workshops will provide team building arrangements, mental health information classes, and activities where the youngsters will work together on finding and developing solutions for the mental difficulties of loneliness. Meanwhile, they will gain skills on how to spot and connect other youngsters, also facing mental difficulties, how to help them be a part of social life, or how to help them seek the help they need.
Impact
This project will reduce the number of young people who feel lonely. This will be done by having the participants in the exchange make a leaflet, with information on what loneliness entails and how to mock and help lonely young people. The leaflet will be translated into the national languages of the partner countries and will include contacts of people who can help in the different countries. The leaflet will be handed out by the participants at their schools and workplaces, as well as elsewhere in their countries. In addition, a video will be made about the project that will focus on loneliness as a problem among young people, to raise awareness of the problem. The movie will be shared on social media to spread the message digitally, as this is the best way to reach as many people as possible on an international level.
