On October 9, the day before International Mental Health Day, Keep Dreaming partners held the final project event: an Online Multiplier Event on Mental Health and Youth Participation. It was both powerful and bittersweet at the same time. Sad in that the project is about to come to an end, but inspiring to see the impact of the project in the partners’ local communities and beyond in such a short period of time and its potential to keep encouraging young people to speak up about mental health and participate actively in their communities.
In the event, partners presented the project results in an interactive way. Participants learned captivating data from the Transnational Study through a fun quiz.They heard about the Training Course and the Youth Exchange through firsthand experience. Speakers shared powerful testimonies on taking care of your mental health, such as making the decision to seek professional help, and encouraged others not to hesitate to do the same if they ever found themselves in similar situations. They also highlighted examples of the benefits of participation for young people’s mental health.
Building upon another topic that came up several times in the project-both in the transnational research and in some of the in-person activities- partners decided to organise an interactive workshop on preventing Burnout in youth work. Participants were split into 5 groups in break-out rooms where young people and youth workers alike discussed different topics related to Burnout and proposed solutions. These ideas were shared with the bigger group and led to a fruitful discussion. Some topics that came up were the importance of setting boundaries, how to take into account cultural differences when talking about mental health, and many more.
Although the Keep Dreaming project is finishing soon, the project partners are confident that the invaluable lessons learnt will be taken to heart and will motivate young people to prioritise taking care of their mental health during participation activities and other areas of their lives.
