1. Tackling early school leaving and low scholar performance within disadvantaged youth groups from small urban and rural areas through the exchange of good practices in the field of educational psychology. On long term, we aim to promote mental health care in order to improve student motivation, increase resilience and promote a growth mindset. 2. Increasing quality in the work and activities of the NGOs involved in implementing inclusive projects and integrating vulnerable communities, while at the same time, of the educational psychologists and teachers involved. Through the exchange of good practices in the field of educational psychology, the organisations involved will broaden their knowledge to tackle issues such as school dropout, bullying and special needs of disadvantaged groups in the community. 3. Ensuring capacity growth of the organisations, institutions and actors involved to work transnationally, to adapt new approaches in working with disadvantaged youth groups within the community and to empower the small community of young people in the area. Through alternative methodologies and instruments, the organisation would be able to empower young people towards a growth mindset
Our project started from the common need of addressing early school leaving and low scholar performance, from a mental health perspective, within youth disadvantaged groups, as the lack of interventions can have long term effects in the whole community such as unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. This specific problem is both related to the individual, meaning their familial and socio-economic context, as well as it is a social problem caused by difficulties related to learning, social skills related issues, lack of motivation, counseling and orientation. Mostly the same problems can cause low academic performance, which can lead to losing motivation linked to educational success. The European Union, on average, has a dropout rate of 10.2%, with Spain and Romania leading the continent with the highest rates at 16% and 16.4% respectively, at the time of writing the need of this project, while countries such as Czech Republic and Greece have better overall statistics, making it an opportunity of sharing good practices in the consortium in order to offer young people a safe space in which they can enjoy non-formal educations, sessions of discussions on mental health and a place to gather and socialize.