The main objective of the project is to support key stakeholders (national health, social welfare and education systems, mental health professionals, NGOs, organisations, etc. ) working with and for vulnerable children, young people and their carers in Albania, Kosovo, Greece and Romania to better respond to identified psychosocial needs by promoting evidence-based structured methodologies and interventions.
Visit the website of the project here.
A summary of the interventions to be implemented:
Movement, Games, Sports and Creativity (MGSC): It is a methodology that uses sport, games and creativity as a psychosocial tool to develop the personal and social skills of children aged 4 to 14 who may have experienced adverse childhood experiences, and aims to improve their resilience and psychosocial well-being through group action. The tool can be applied by professionals who work with children on a daily basis (social workers, teachers, animators, coaches, etc.).
The Move on & Engage (MoE) methodology encourages and supports children and young people to develop skills that will enable them to assess issues relating to their safety and psychosocial well-being and then develop and implement group initiatives to address these concerns. It is addressed to children aged 12 to 18 years, with the aim of enhancing their psychosocial resilience and improving their collective effectiveness to deal with issues affecting them in their environment.
The I Support My Friends methodology involves peer-to-peer psychological first aid and is specifically adapted for training children and adolescents on how to better support their friends after a difficult event. It aims to equip children aged 9 to 17 with the ability to activate and reinforce positive skills that will help them and their friends manage and adapt during and after a crisis event, while providing adult participants with the skills necessary to safely support children and teens to care for each other. The tool can be implemented by professionals (social workers, teachers, health workers, psychologists, etc.) or community workers
Walking the JOURNEY: A methodological toolkit for the establishment, support and development of Children and Youth Advisory Boards (CABs): the methodological toolkit is conceptually based on a set of children's participation rights as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The methodology is particularly suitable for professionals involved in child protection from all levels of professional life and for adults who involve children in decision-making processes in different contexts.
The interventions include the training of trainers, facilitators, children in the different methodologies, as well as their implementation, depending on existing needs and capacities. The trainings are addressed to professionals working with children in different contexts (schools, organisations, camps, sports clubs, etc.).
Specifically for Greece, the following will take place:
1 training (3 days) of facilitators in the Movement, Games, Sports and Creativity (MGSC) methodology. The training is mainly addressed to facilitators, teachers, coordinators of activities for children.
1 training (3 days) of facilitators in the Move On & Engage methodology. The training is mainly addressed to teachers, children's activity coordinators, psychologists, social workers and other social scientists; without excluding other categories of relevant professionals.
1 training (3 days) of facilitators in the I Support My Friends methodology. The training is aimed at social workers, teachers, health workers, psychologists and community workers.
Facilitator trainings (3 to 5 days) on the above three methodologies. The trainings are addressed to professionals who would like to take on the role of trainer in the respective methodologies. Places are limited and participation will depend on the chances of implementation during the project.
1 training (2 days) of facilitators in the Walking the JOURNEY methodology. The training is addressed to mental health professionals and other professionals from public education and social welfare systems, as well as coordinators of activities with children.
1 training (2 days) of child facilitators in the I Support My Friends methodology. The training is aimed at children who would like to be trained in psychological first aid and peer support with the help of caring adults.
The project Unity in Care: Advancing Mental Health Support Systems for Vulnerable Children and Youth is coordinated by Terre des hommes (Tdh) Hungary in collaboration with Tdh Hellas, Tdh Romania, Tdh Kosovo and Nisma-Arsis Albania and is funded by the European Commission (CERV-2024-CHILD). The duration of the project is 24 months.
For more information, on the implementation of Unity In Care in Greece, contact: Panagiota Kanellopoulou at [email protected]
