Our project will tailor an existing educational programme - the Archipelago of Treasures - to the needs of youths aged 14-15 in each participating country. In order to be able to tailor it to the difficulties faced by this target group, LNF (Malta), Vilnius PPT (Lithuania) and Ostoja Foundation (Poland) will be compiling a survey in coordination with EIIP, the organisation which developed the Archipelago of Treasures programme. After carrying out the survey with a sample of youths within the defined age bracket, the data will be sent to EIIP for the compilation of country national reports by their specialised research analysis team. EIIP will then train members from each other participating organisation on implementing this programme in schools. The implementation of our project will seek to contribute to counteracting issues such as early school leaving, mental health difficulties/ susceptibility to mental health problems, etc, and ensuring that the programme is tailored to the needs primarily identified in each participating country. Studies conducted by EIIP have demonstrated that multiple problems and risk behaviours are mutually correlated and have a number of common risk factors (one of the strongest risk factors is sexualisation). Implementation of the educational programme Archipelago of Treasures can combat these trends and empower students (youths) as well as school staff to address issues which arise. For more targeted results, we are aiming to reach youths aged 14-15 through school-based activities. The project will be broken into 4 distinct phases: • Research Study • Adaptation and implementation of the Archipelago of Treasures Programme • Dissemination and exploitation of research results (incl Conference) • Project evaluation Objectives Our project aims to implement and disseminate an educational programme in all participating countries. This Programme is known as the Archipelago of Treasures, and it is already used by project partner EIIP in Polish schools and has been found to be highly effective. This programme offers an accessible and easy to adopt tool for the effective prevention of youth problems. In all countries we will implement this programme within five secondary schools with students aged 14-15yrs. Archipelago of treasures aims to help youths reflect and prepare for the journey of life, the journey of life is the conscious pursuit of the most important life goals, a life vocation, thanks to which a person lives a full life, realises their talents, fulfils their deepest dreams, and chooses a mission which gives meaning to their life. based on this understanding of the 'journey of life' adolescence is usually not the journey itself, but an important stage of preparation, searching and choosing goals and discerning decisions. The positive impact of the programme will help youths to become more empowered and more productive thus reducing early school leaving, suicide rates, and other youth problems, whilst encouraging the use of soft skills to make youths more employable. By the end of the project we want to reach the below objectives: -Compile three national country reports on the problems faced by youths aged 14-15 -Empower over 1,000 youths (collectively) in Malta, Poland and Lithuania through the AoT programme -Set up three conferences for dissemination and exploitation of the research results Youth participants in all three countries will gain invaluable soft skills and life skills which will help them to make more responsible and educated decisions which promote self-respect and respect for others. These skills are invaluable for anyone, and will be a good basis on which to build formal education and informal education achievements and qualifications. In a work setting, soft skills such as respectfulness, responsibility and diligence are sought after by employers.
For the youth: • To collect data using survey on protective & risk factors for the development & health of 15-year-olds in school • To adapt the content & form in the implementation of the EIIP AoT programme to the partners’ national contexts, the partners’ suggestions and experiences guided the adaptaions approved by EIIP. The main objectives being, To; o Promote, engage and connect with young people o Empower young people to understand their positive potential o Support young people to acquire skills and key competences to be able to assert themselves against risky behaviours; alcohol, drugs, smoking, early sexualisation, depression, suicidal thoughts, school truancy ect. o To provide youth with positive role models and support systems, to encourage them towards hopes, dreams, passions and aspirations that promote their well being. For the Partners: The intention of the partners was to share knowledge and expertise to be able to; • implement the survey and research methodology to be able to conduct future research • implement the preventive AoT programme in different countries after necessary adaptations • To achieve the necessary licence to be able to continue using both the research tools and the AOT program in the future
All Partners in the Project have a common interest that of the healthy development and well-being of youth. The aim of Youth Positive Potential (YPP) project was to highlight the positive potential of youths and to empower them to embrace their potential and to avoid common problems and risk behaviours. Our addressed needs were: To understand through scientific research methods; • The types and frequency of risky behaviours; alcohol, drugs, smoking, sexualisation, school truancy, depression, suicidal thoughts, ect. • Some protective factors for youth, if any; such as role models, loved ones, ect. • The dreams, passions and aspirations of youths • The relationship, if any, between different risky behaviours • The relationship if any between protective factors and risky behaviour The correlation between the risk behaviours and protactive factors was similar for all youths in different countries. EIIP shared its, effective prevention tools; the Archipelago of Treasures (AoT) programme. The AoT programme, implemented for over 10 years, turned out to be very effective in Polish schools. The YPP project provided an opportunity to test the programme in other countries. this also had positive feedback in partner countries.