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Move Your Mind: Sports for Resilience and Well-being

2025-3-CY01-KA152-YOU-0003793612025Mobility of young peopleongoing
Countries: CY|EL|HU|ES|RO|LT · Grant: €59,258
Physical and mental health, well-beingBridging intercultural, intergenerational and social divideKey competences development

Objectives

The project “Move Your Mind: Sports for Resilience and Well-being” aims to empower young people to use sport and physical activity as tools for improving mental health, building resilience, and fostering inclusion. By combining non-formal education with cooperative sports methods, the project responds to pressing needs observed in youth work practice: rising stress and anxiety among young people, low levels of physical activity, and limited safe spaces where mental health can be addressed without stigma. From a youth work perspective, the project is designed to achieve several interlinked objectives: Promote mental health and well-being through sport and movement. The project will show young people how physical activity can be an accessible, enjoyable, and effective way to reduce stress, increase self-esteem, and regulate emotions. Youth workers and participants will explore non-competitive, cooperative sports as inclusive tools for well-being. Strengthen resilience and coping strategies. By engaging in team-based activities, reflection exercises, and resilience workshops, participants will learn how to face challenges, manage setbacks, and support each other. These competences are crucial not only for personal development but also for active participation in society. Foster inclusion and diversity. The project intentionally involves young people with fewer opportunities, including those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, rural areas, or with mental health challenges. Activities will be designed to ensure equal participation, adapted to diverse abilities, and based on respect and solidarity. Empower young people through non-formal learning. The exchange will use methods such as team-building games, cooperative sports, storytelling, reflection circles, and peer-led workshops. These approaches place participants at the centre of the learning process, ensuring active involvement and meaningful competence development. Promote intercultural dialogue and European identity. By bringing together young people from different countries, the project will encourage mutual understanding, break stereotypes, and strengthen a sense of belonging to a diverse but united Europe. This intercultural experience contributes to Youth Goal #3 (Inclusive Societies) and helps participants value diversity as a strength. Support recognition of learning through Youthpass. Participants will be guided to reflect daily on their competences, linking their experiences to the eight Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The Youthpass process will help them articulate what they have learned and apply it in their future studies, work, or community engagement. In practical terms, the project seeks to strengthen youth work practice by integrating sport and mental health into non-formal education. Many youth workers and organisations recognise the importance of well-being but lack structured methods to address it. This project will fill that gap by creating adaptable workshops and activities that can be reused in local youth work. By documenting the methods and compiling them into a “Move Your Mind Toolkit,” the project ensures that results are transferable and beneficial beyond the direct participants. At the same time, the project contributes to long-term youth empowerment. Participants will not only benefit personally but also act as multipliers, sharing what they have learned in their communities through follow-up activities such as school workshops, community sports days, or awareness campaigns. In this way, the project supports young people to become active citizens who promote healthier, more inclusive societies. In conclusion, the project aims to achieve more than a single mobility experience: it seeks to inspire a new approach in youth work where sport, resilience, and mental health are interconnected. Its objectives are to improve young people’s well-being, build their competences for life, strengthen inclusion, and provide youth workers with tools they can continue to use. By doing so, “Move Your Mind: Sports for Resilience and Well-being” directly contributes to the Erasmus+ priorities of inclusion, diversity, and participation, while responding to concrete challenges faced by young people and youth organisations today.

Project partners (6)