The Self4Youth project had as its main objective to promote self-care and inclusive mental health, by developing a practical, accessible, user-friendly, and multilingual resource: the Self4Youth Toolkit. Through a participatory approach, the project aimed to engage social, educational, and community-based entities to generate content rooted in the real experiences of local territories, as well as to promote a shared and co-responsible vision in health care and the promotion of well-being. The project sought to strengthen European cooperation, foster social innovation methodologies, and empower organizations with tools to enhance emotional well-being from a preventive and positive perspective. Additionally, two training sessions were conducted to reach a common understanding of the concept of mental health and intervention approaches, as well as to improve the competencies of professionals and future practitioners. The project also aimed to establish long-lasting transnational networks based on collaboration and inclusion. Likewise, it intended to increase visibility of the project and its key messages, creating collective awareness and shared knowledge through an active strategy on social media and digital platforms.
The Self4Youth project was created in response to a need shared by the consortium: the lack of accessible, inclusive, and practical tools to promote self-care and mental health, especially among young adults and people at risk of exclusion. The increasing concern for youth well-being, worsened by the pandemic, showed the urgency of creating community-based strategies focused on prevention and emotional education. Many existing resources were made for clinical settings, using technical language that excluded those needing more adapted support. A disconnect was found between institutional discourse and the real-life experiences of both individuals and professionals. The project aimed to promote a culture of self-care and shared responsibility for inclusion, and to develop a Toolkit that reflects local knowledge and cultural diversity. It also sought to create spaces for active participation and voice, and to build lasting synergies among organizations to exchange good practices and reinforce European cooperation in inclusive mental health. This proposal is grounded in a vision of social innovation, where emotional well-being is a collective responsibility embedded in education, health, and community development.