Unity in Care: Advancing Mental Health Support Systems for Vulnerable Children and Youth

A new project aimed at improving mental health support for vulnerable children and youth kicked off in Budapest on January 29-30, 2025. The two-day workshop brought together partners from Romania, Greece, Albania, and Kosovo, including LocalLink partner Nisma ARSIS from Albania.

The “Unity in Care” project will introduce new preventive mental health and psychosocial support methods that can be used by both mental health professionals and non-specialists, including local organizations. The project focuses on three key approaches: Movement, Games, Sports and Creativity (MGSC), Move On & Engage, and I-Support My Friends.

To ensure youth participation, the project will establish one International Child & Youth Advisory Board and four national advisory boards. The initiative aims to train 216 professionals and reach 1,300 young beneficiaries across the participating countries.

The project responds to the high rates of mental health challenges among vulnerable youth in Southeast Europe, while addressing the limited resources of public health systems. By training local organizations and non-mental health professionals, the project aims to make support more accessible and affordable for young people.

Technical Working Groups will be created to share best practices and training materials through the European Child Protection Hub platform. The project’s impact will be measured through collecting significant change stories from participants. The project is co-funded by the European Union.

Read more about the Unity in Care project

https://childhub.org/en/series-of-child-protection-materials/unity-care-advancing-mental-health-support-systems-vulnerable-children-and-youth

A summary of the interventions to be implemented:

A training for children and adolescents on how to support a friend in distress

“I Support My Friends” serves as peer-to-peer psychological first aid specifically designed to train children and adolescents in effectively supporting their friends after distressing events. It is vital for them to be aware of and have access to reliable support systems that enhance their positive coping skills and adaptive abilities. Given that children and adolescents are often the first to observe and learn about their friends’ concerns, it’s crucial to equip them with the necessary tools to listen and provide support without causing additional harm. Providing timely support in the early stages after a stressful event or during periods of adversity significantly contributes to their coping and recovery process.

https://childhub.org/en/child-protection-online-library/i-support-my-friends

Movement, Games, Sports and Creativity (MGSC): It is a methodology that uses sport, games and creativity as a psychosocial tool to develop the personal and social skills of children aged 4 to 14 who may have experienced adverse childhood experiences, and aims to improve their resilience and psychosocial well-being through group action. The tool can be applied by professionals who work with children on a daily basis (social workers, teachers, animators, coaches, etc.).

https://childhub.org/en/child-protection-online-library/laugh-run-and-move-develop-together

The Move on & Engage (MoE) methodology encourages and supports children and young people to develop skills that will enable them to assess issues relating to their safety and psychosocial well-being and then develop and implement group initiatives to address these concerns. It is addressed to children aged 12 to 18 years, with the aim of enhancing their psychosocial resilience and improving their collective effectiveness to deal with issues affecting them in their environment.

https://childhub.org/en/child-protection-online-library/move-engage

Walking the JOURNEY: A methodological toolkit for the establishment, support and development of Children and Youth Advisory Boards (CABs): the methodological toolkit is conceptually based on a set of children’s participation rights as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The methodology is particularly suitable for professionals involved in child protection from all levels of professional life and for adults who involve children in decision-making processes in different contexts.

https://childhub.org/en/child-protection-online-library/walking-journey-amidst-challenging-circumstances

The project Unity in Care: Advancing Mental Health Support Systems for Vulnerable Children and Youth is coordinated by Terre des hommes (Tdh) Hungary in collaboration with Tdh Hellas, Tdh Romania, Tdh Kosovo and Nisma-Arsis Albania and is funded by the European Commission (CERV-2024-CHILD). The duration of the project is 24 months.