Building Resilience and Brighter Futures

Background WHO has labelled suicide and self-harm a word health problem. A recent report showed that Iceland and Lithuania are two of four countries within OECD with the highest rate where suicide rates among 15-19 yo. There is still need for strategy and action of preventive measures against mental health problems and emotional well-being from local and national authorities in both countries. While many initiatives and help lines have been started both countries, none focuses specifically on the age group 13-19 years. While local and national authorities have come to an agreement on how to offer more psychological services for this group no concrete action is yet in sight on prevention measures, such as increased and more targeted counselling, regular screening for anxiety and depression, and education measures where youth is trained in coping skills and how to develop inner resilience. This project aimed to create a resilience programme for students age 13-14 yo. led by their voices addressing the challenges they find overwhelming at their stage of development. Identified specific current stresses in young people lives and their need to be involved in a programme prioritising their input Objectives The overall objectives of the project is empowering adolescents with coping strategies and help seeking behaviors reducing the stigma around accessing support and high lighting the importance of early intervention. The BUILD learning course main objective is to equip young people (13-14 year old), with the necessary knowledge, skills and competences needed to successfully tackle challenges they face in different spheres of their lives on a daily basis and through discussion on topics that address emotional well-being, empower them and build their resilience. Implementation The BUILD curriculum a 6 week learning programme of weekly sessions (each 40-60 min). The curriculum contains 11 independent module where the programme start with the foundation course, then the pupils can choose to discuss four out of following modules which tackle different day-to-day issues relevant for teenagers: body image, bullying, family, mental health, school stress, social media, friendship, sexuality and substance abuse. The BUILD facilitators Handbook addressing the objective and background of the course; definition of resilience; pedagogical strategy; guidelines for each module; evaluation methods and tools for implementation of the course. The BUILD three-day training course for facilitators in Dublin, Ireland. 32 psychologists, youth workers, social workers, teachers and guidance counselors were trained in the BUILD methodology. The BUILD Open Educational Resources for facilitators. The learning materials are complemented with an online self-assessment tool. Two multiplier events where the BUILD project was presented to stakeholders along with the results from the piloting and testimonies from participants. One event took place in Kaunas and the final conference in Reykjavik which gathered over 160 participants. Achievements The project had 4 outputs: IO1 The BUILD curriculum, IO2 The Facilitators Handbook, IO3 2 pilots, IO4 Set of OER's. The BUILD curriculum and the facilitators handbook form a strong learning material for adolescents. The learning material gives teenagers cognitive tools that build and increase their resilience to cope with the challenges life brings them. The facilitators handbook gathers all implementation and overall guidelines for facilitators with pedagogical approach, classroom setup, content description and focus for each slide and additional material to deepen the knowledge for each module. A set of OER’s was developed for the facilitators to deepen their knowledge on the topics in the BUILD curriculum and is accessible on the projects Web site. Before and after each of the 2 Pilots the pupils answered questions on resilience. The result was analysed and put out in a written report. A sustainability plan was written on how the partners envision maintaining and further developing the results. Another main result of the project is the intangible outcome of increased awareness for the importance of preventive measures relating to mental health for the project participants and others who were indirectly involved in the project.