The University of Jaén and the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency will work together to establish synergies between PROADEMO and ‘YIMinds’, projects focused on the mental health care of young people.
07/03/2023.- The European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA) joins the External Advisory Board of the initiative ‘PROmoteDing adolescent health and EMOtional well-being in education, health and society’ (PROADEMO).
Luis Joaquín García, professor at the University of Jaén (UJA) and head of PROADEMO, held a telematic meeting with Eva Reina, president of ERYICA, to assess the incorporation of the European agency based in Luxembourg to this project for the promotion of emotional well-being in young people.
Luis Joaquín García explained the keys to PROADEMO, which aims to develop a methodology that promotes the active participation of adolescents and social agents in the development of national and European policies, as well as the drafting of documents in a child-friendly language.
“PROADEMO’s objectives are about the design and development of a digital training package, aimed at school personnel, health workers, youth technicians and young people themselves, so that they can improve their skills and knowledge to provide mental health services to adolescents at risk of developing emotional problems as a sequel to the pandemic,” explained Luis Joaquín García.
For its part, ERYICA is an independent European organization made up of national and regional youth information coordination bodies and networks. “We are a network with 40 structures in a total of 28 European countries, which are integrated into the Council of Europe. We act as a support platform for professionals working in the field of youth information and guidance,” said Eva Reina.
ERYICA is currently leading the Erasmus+ KA2 project ‘YIminds’, focused on building a structured dialogue between youth information workers, mental health professionals and young people. “The main objectives of ‘YIMinds’ are to improve the mental health literacy of youth information workers, provide tools to identify mental health problems among young people and share good practices among the experiences contributed by teams from different European countries,” he specified.
ERYICA coordinates the consortium, which also involves six other partners: the Regional Youth Documentation and Information Center of Madrid, the Education and Youth Board (Estonia), Jugendinfos (Austria), De Ambrassade (Belgium), Cyprus Youth Council (Cyprus) and IASIS. In addition, Eurodesk Brussels Link (Belgium) and Young Scot (UK) are also part of the project as associated partners.
“The purpose of this meeting is to start working on establishing synergies between similar initiatives, such as PROADEMO and ‘YIMinds’. This collaboration will allow us to share experiences and generate useful documents and resources to improve the services provided by youth information technicians in the field of mental health,” said Luis Joaquín García.
In this way, ERYICA joins PROADEMO’s External Advisory Council together with other institutions that have also confirmed their incorporation to it, such as the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE), attached to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, the Confederation of Organizations of Psychopedagogy and Guidance of Spain (COPOE), the Asociación Española de Ayuda Mutua contra Fobia Social y Trastornos de Ansiedad (AMTAES), the Grupo de Salud Integral de la Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Bisexuales, Intersexuales y más (FELGTBI+) or the Asociación Asturiana para la Atención y Cuidado de la Infancia (ASACI).
PROADEMO, led by UJA, is a project (PDC2022-133401-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency and the European Union, through the “Next Generation EU” funds within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
