The original objectives of the GIGA group youth exchange were : - Inclusion for the youths that have lesser opportunities - Have the experience of International co-operation and successful group effort - Build up confidence, self-esteem and courage to those that were not social by nature or lack the courage to speak out - Encourage the use of English as much as possible and develop speaking skills with people from different cultures - Learn to tolerate challenging situations and manage their emotions - Make decisions with other youths for the benefit of the project - Build up resilience and bounce back from setbacks and learn to deal with difficulties - Learn about mental health problems in each of the youth group countries and how mental health is part of now days youths lives and what does mental problems mean in reality - Increase self-awareness - Have new experiences through new activities with new friends - Reduce loneliness and meet other youths from different culture and feel part of the group The background to go forward with the idea for a possible youth exchange was the youngsters were going through a teenage turmoil or starting their teenage years and going in their 15-16 year of age. In the Finnish group youngsters some had social issues with their friends or some did not have close friends or their social skills prevented them to have normal relationships with other youngsters as specially after the COVID-19. Abuse of alcohol came to the picture and mental & social loneliness was increasing. School work suffered and it was seen that intervention or something different with a clear purpose was needed. The Portugal youths were the age of 12-14 who were not yet in their teens but who had background of lesser opportunities and different types of issues like lack of funds to experience travelling compared to the Finnish group, social distancing and only limited English skills. Both groups and the youth organization after discussions agreed that It was important to stop the circle of negativity and offer the possibility to see that there were still good things in life and different possibilities and opportunities if they were willing to work hard to achieve them. The main driver for the project was to give the youths exiting positive experiences, something to wait for, something to work for and let them have the sense of accomplishment, group feeling, inclusion and purpose. This came in the form of Erasmus+ youth exchange. Co-operation internationally and familiarize themselves with another culture and youths was one of the objectives. From an idea to project. The project started to get into more concrete shape (with potential participants and partner organization) and after discussions with the partner organization about the possibility to do a youth exchange with the topic of mental health, the first main objective and goal started to become clear. Idea was to support the youths to plan, design and find first time slots for the youth exchange in Portugal and in Finland. Second main objective was to plan the youth activities and learnings around "how can we learn more about mental health, why it is important, what can we as youngsters do for the benefit of mental health?". Our youth group wanted to achieve the objective of a successful exchange and to experience travelling and get to know the other youths in a foreign country and see them selves another culture and what were the issues and everyday problems with the youths living in there. Also practicing English in real situations with other youths was seen important. The group wanted also achieve on experiencing something new and give out possibilities to those that had lesser opportunities to travel or meet up people from Finland or Portugal.