The “Mind Matters” Youth Project 

The Erasmus European Union funded KA152 Youth Exchange project written by Özlem ŞAHAN ÇOLPAN, an English teacher at Ahmet Olcay Primary School, lasted 12 days under the coordination of the Municipality of Gozo, Malta. The “Mind Matters” Youth project aims to address the psychological consequences of the pandemic on young people. Our project partners from Slovenia, Spain, Macedonia, Macedonia, Malta and Turkey, ESIMDER Eskişehir Imam Hatip High School Students Association and Provincial Directorate of Family and Social Services participated. A total of 30 young people, six from each organization, were hosted by Gozo Municipality for 12 days. One teacher and two university students representing the Provincial Directorate of Family and Social Services, and one teacher and two university students representing ESIMDER.

This youth exchange program, which brings together young people aged 18-30 to participate in activities, aims to promote the mental health and well-being of young people. By focusing on raising mental health awareness, the initiative aims to equip young people with strategies to cope with stress, anxiety and other psychological problems. Participants learned about the importance of mental health, explored techniques for mental health and built supportive networks with peers from all walks of life through a series of seminars and group workshops.

The project aims to address the psychological consequences of the pandemic on young people, raise awareness among young people through a youth exchange program promoting mental health and well-being, provide psycho-education on coping skills and techniques to deal with psychological issues related to the pandemic and build supportive networks. Furthermore, the project aims to bring together participants from different nations to promote intercultural communication and develop understanding and empathy.

As part of our project dissemination efforts, it will be shared with local news channels in the ESIMDER association building. However, students under institutional protection will not participate in these activities.

We visited the Maltese consulate to introduce our KA152 Youth Exchange project coordinated by Gozo Municipality in Malta and shared the details of our project. We would like to thank Mr. Fethi Etem, our undersecretary for their hospitality. Our project partners are Slovenia, Macedonia, Spain and Turkey. The aim of our project, which we participated in with young people staying in institutions affiliated to the Provincial Directorate of Family and Social Services, is to raise awareness about mental health among young people and adolescents, Techniques for coping with psychological issues related to the pandemic and creating supportive networks aim to promote cross-cultural communication.