The goals of the project were: to increase the quality of mental and physical health of youth with eating disorders (EDs), to involve young people with EDs in helping their peers, to increase the quality of work with youths with EDs, to strengthen the partnership between the organizations Anabell Česko and EDI Slovensko, and to improve awareness about the mental health of youth, as well as about new possibilities of helping youth with PPP. A significant part of set goals was the creation of an educational program for young people recovering from eating disorders (EDs), who would become peer workers and engage in helping and supporting their peers in recovery from eating disorders. To achieve these goals, we proposed the implementation of several activities, by which we wanted to support the initiative of young people, strengthen their soft skills and competences, and at the same time increase the quality of mental health also of young people receiving treatment from EDs, by receiving a sense of understanding and support from peer workers.
Our needs arose from several years of work with the target group of youth with eating disorders (EDs) and with the issue of a youth mental health. In 2021, also due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we strongly perceived that the system of professional assistance for youth with EDs and awareness of mental health is at a better level in Czechia than in Slovakia. In Slovakia, there was no integrated prevention program, community care or peer consultant position in the field of EDs. The position of a peer worker and the involvement of proactive young people was the biggest need on which our project was based. Among our clients there were many young people who wanted to get involved in helping their peers, passing on their experience and motivate them. But we didn't have the know-how how to engage them in a way that was safe for both, for them and for the clients. The idea for a project, which would include the creation of a mentoring program, came from a conversation with organization Centrum Anabell, which had been working with peer workers for a long time and had good results. Within the project, we wanted to create complete education and subsequent practice that would enable young people to help their peers.