"<< Background >>The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as a legally binding treaty, has represented a milestone in the field of disability rights at an international level and has significantly contributed during its lifespan to change the landscape in many fields, including policy development, legal framework reforms and health and social practice. However, persons with disabilities are still facing vulnerability and discrimination in different scenarios in a post-pandemic context. The European Disability Strategy 2021-2030 recognises young persons with disabilities, women and persons experiencing psychosocial disabilities as groups requiring particular attention (COM/2021/101 final; page 11) to ensure that their rights are respected and the European Union Youth Strategy 2019-2027 also recognised the need to embed all actions addressed at this target group within a Human Rights framework (2018/C 456/01; C 456/3).The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the frailness of the health and social protection systems across the European Union as well as the emergence of new vulnerable profiles whom had seen its mental health deteriorate and suffered the consequences of the disruption of the system whom has failed to provide adequate, affordable and accessible health and social support, including preventive support, support in the family environment or community-based support. Young individuals with psychosocial disabilities are now facing an increased risk of being subject to non UNCRPD compliant practices due to the lack of community-based services and the lack of skills of the current health and social services workforce whom had failed to develop within its service effective and efficient outreach and intervention strategies targeted at them.Aware of that fact, the EU Disability Strategy 2021-2030 also recognises that a «specific framework for Social Services of Excellence for persons with disabilities is needed to improve service delivery for persons with disabilities and to enhance the attractiveness of jobs in this area including through upskilling and reskilling of service providers» (COM/2021/101 final; page 9) that ultimately will enable a systemic change on service provision to progress on the deinstitutionalisation process of persons with disabilities. The different organisations applying, building on that rationale, have identified the need to:(1) Increase the skills and competencies of youth workers in the health, social and youth service providers’;(2) Develop new methods of service provision to reach PWFO-PWDs and youth individuals with complex support needs;(3) Implement the UNCRPD at a local level and deliver community-based services;(4) Have a readily-available training package that helps in this transition to the whole workforce of the organisation and;(5) Increase social inclusion and the agency of PWFO-PWDs and youth with complex support needs and uphold their rights and citizenship status.<< Objectives >>The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the frailness of the health and social protection systems across the European Union as well as the emergence of new vulnerable profiles whom had seen its mental health deteriorate and suffered the consequences of the disruption of the system whom has failed to provide adequate, affordable and accessible health and social support, including preventive support, support in the family environment or community-based support. Young individuals with psychosocial disabilities are now facing an increased risk of being subject to non UNCRPD compliant practices due to the lack of community-based services and the lack of skills of the current health and social services workforce whom had failed to develop within its service effective and efficient outreach and intervention strategies targeted at them.New standards for UNCRPD compliant services are required to, as well as the need to avoid casualization of the workforce in light this global transformation of services.The overarching objectives of the project match the two priorities selected: ""increasing quality, innovation and recognition of youth work"" and ""strengthening the employability of young people""General Objectives1. Promote social inclusion of young persons with disabilities with complex needs and with fewer opportunities (NEETs) to ensure their Human Rights are respected.2. Contribute upon identity building and citizenship of persons at risk of exclusion by developing concrete actions to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.Specific Objectives1. Design and create a cross-sectoral and co-produced intervention methodology between health, social services and third sector organisations to develop community-based services;2. Upskill and reskill current professionals in the disability sector by mapping their current competences and developing evidence-based and rights-driven training packages;3. Develop resources to promote personal development, autonomy and resilience of young persons with complex needs and fewer opportunities to promote pathways of engagement with the system.<< Implementation >>Upon completion of the project the following activities/project results will be achieved or produced*.-PR1 Mapping Cross-Sectoral Skills & Competencies of Young Workers in the EU. Guidelines to improve Professional Skills & Competencies from Youth Workers-PR2 E-YOUTH Common Methodological Framework. Methodological framework for transforming and implementing community-based outreach services for youth persons (Service Delivery Process).-PR3 Toolkit on Community Intervention for Youth Workers. Staff Guidelines on Community Intervention for Youth Workers (Toolkit & Resources).-PR4 Pedagogical Guide and Training Resources that will result in a C1 Short Term Staff Training Event followed by a local piloting phase included in PR4. -PR5 Policy Recommendations.Additionally, the partners consortium has planned 6 Multiplier Events and 1 'C1 Short Term Staff Training Event' to be held in Denmark conceptualised as a capacity-building event to consolidate and contribute to the transferability of each o f the Project Results / activities to be implemented during the project.*Every Project Results from PR1 to PR4 will be produced in a universal version in English and a local version adapted to cultural differences, legislation and organisational or administrative procedures. Local versions will be translated into local languages, namely: Danish, French, Slovenian, Spanish and Catalan.<< Results >>The partnership believes the E-YOUTH Project will contribute to address unmet needs of PWFO-PWDs or youth individuals with support needs in multiple aspects of their lives as well as increasing their employability and social inclusion. The outcomes of the project are twofold, not only addressing the final user group but also youth professionals in services that can boost its skills and abilities and prepare to become the disability workforce of tomorrow, ensuring that they participate in a complete renewal of the way services addressed at PWFO-PWD or youth individuals with complex support needs are transformed into right-driven and community-based services.The specific results of the project (during and after its completion) aim to:-Identify unmet needs of PWFO-PWDs and youth individuals with complex support needs;-Identify skills & competencies of youth workers and upskill and reskill the disability workforce;-Improve the quality of existing community-based services (HCBS) in EU countries;-Enable the transition of service providers to a new paradigm of services, based on the community and compliant with Human Rights standards by identifying and transforming its service delivery model.-Develop innovative and transferable approaches and new intervention methodologies and make them available for youth professionals by providing them easy-to-use toolkits and resources.-Develop and deliver an abridged and comprehensive training to professionals with different academic backgrounds & roles and responsibilities between different service providers.-Provide guidance to local/regional/national/European authorities and decision-makers through updated and crosscutting reports and policy recommendations to shift and steer future policy.-Upgrade the Quality of Life (QoL) of PWFO-PWDs and youth individuals with complex support needs and their families;-Strengthen the synergies between the different sectors involved in service provisions for PWFO-PWDs and youth individuals with complex support needs.Every partner will enrich from cooperating with each other as the tasks and deliverables in the project could not be done by a single organisation but by a curated and carefully-selected consortium of organisations with specific experience, expertise and know-how so they immediate benefits of cooperating with transnational partners are:1. Being able to deliver on the PRs of the E-YOUTH project with transnational organisations and professionals providing and enriching the partnership with local know-how and experience.2. Being able to transfer from a bottom-up approach innovative practices in each country to other European MS as well as generating transnational evidence-based practice.3. Contribute to harmonisation of practices in the social, health and youth sector as well as improving service provision addressed at the target population in each country.4. Implement collaborative and co-production methodologies beyond country borders making better use of EU funding mechanisms bypassing the traditional limited resources for social innovation, especially in the social sector.5. Improve policy-making at a macro-regional level but also at a National/Regional/Local level."

<< Objectives >>The project focuses on three major objectives. First, creating awareness for the importance of mental health for the VET sector and education in general. Second objective is the development of learning opportunities so that the VET sector can build competences necessary to face the mental health pandemic. Third, the project aims at creating change by further reaching out to interested learners, but even more importantly to VET executives and principals, as well as policy makers.<< Implementation >>The activities are contextualized in the phases creating awareness, creating learning opportunities and creating impact. Activities foreseen in the project are a social media campaign, a podcast series, a self-evaluation tool to identify learning needs; regarding learning opportunities a blended learning program MENTAL HEALTH AMBASSADORs is developed, that is adoptable from educational organizations. Finally a strategy paper for VET and a policy paper seek impact along a huge conference.<< Results >>The project has achieved to create substantial impact in the VET and educational sector in general by raising the awareness for mental health issues as relevant context factor of future relevance. Throughout the project various diverse learning opportunities rose the knowledge and competence level of a remarkable number of people. And finally a relevant community came into being, that is sustained far beyond the project end and manages to develop long-term network structures.

The RURAL MENTAL HEALTH (RMH) project will aim to redress the imbalance and inequality between mental health care provision in rural areas compared to urban ones. Considering that those suffering from mental health disorders in rural areas are substantially more likely to commit suicide than their urban counterparts, it is crucial that awareness of mental health issues is raised across rural communities; increased and improved mental health care provision is made available; and stigmatization around these issues is reduced. In this context, the project will develop informational, contextual and background information on mental health issues in rural areas and the need for basic care provision via a number of different community-led avenues. It will also develop training modules on basic care provision, in a bid to help rural educators, volunteers, employers and other actors to at least understand the incidence of mental health disorders better and be able to identify them, and reach out to those involved. The target users of these materials will therefore be those involved in working with vulnerable teenagers, farming advisors and agricultural educators, employers, and job counsellors to name but a few. Other open educational resources developed by the project will include a checklist to identify concerns; a promotion video attempting to reduce stigmatization; and an information pack aimed directly at end-users and vulnerable groups in rural areas to help them seek help for themselves or others. The combination of these elements should help a two-pronged approach to a sensitive issue, by addressing the target group directly but also via trusted community leaders. Ultimately, this project aims to improve the quality of life for those suffering from mental health issues in rural areas, improve awareness and prevention of serious mental health issue occurrences, and, fundamentally, reduce the suicide rate in rural areas across Europe, particularly of disadvantaged youth and rural workers including farmers.

Mental health has been identified as an urgent priority in Europe, but is under critical threat because of climate change, digitalization, socio-economic inequities, migration, aging populations, and COVID-19. Protecting the mental health of vulnerable populations in these times of change requires innovative solutions beyond treatment in the clinical healthcare system. ADVANCE is a wide-ranging project which will deepen the understanding of the mental health promotion and prevention field. It will provide specific programmes which can be replicated for key groups in diverse countries in Europe and create the guidance and methodologies required to ensure that effective mental health programmes can be developed, adapted, implemented, assessed, and scaled. We propose an ambitious mixed-methods project with overarching interdisciplinary focus on social justice. Our study encompasses: (1) a rigorous co-creation process with end-users, practitioners, and policy makers; (2) an interrelated set of intervention studies with diverse vulnerable populations (from youth to old age); and (3) scaling-up strategy development. We will conduct five trials and an implementation study. Participants will be youth affected by climate change in Germany; socio-economically disadvantaged young adults in Lithuania; working adults in highly digitalized work environments in the Netherlands; migrants in Italy and Denmark; and older adults in Switzerland. All intervention studies will include adaptation through human-centred design; participatory process evaluations; stigma prevention; and scaling strategy development. We will deliver situational analyses, intervention packages, and scaling strategies in 7 countries. Based on our research across a range of developmental stages, risks, and settings we will be able to deliver 5 higher-level (synthesis) guidelines widely applicable in Europe – collected in the public-facing, openly accessible ADVANCE resource package.

Cancer and mental ill-health constitute leading public health problems in Europe, with more than 80 million people reporting mental health issues in Europe and around 4 million new cases of cancer diagnosed per year. People with mental ill-health, have higher cancer incidence and reported mortality, an excess linked to risky health behaviours as well as significant barriers experienced when accessing the often highly fragmented health care systems. Timely and evidence-based preventive strategies including optimizing health care pathways provide a solution to the high cancer morbidity and could improve overall health outcomes in this disadvantaged population. The aim of the Co-CAPTAIN project is to deliver an innovative solution based on the Patient Navigation Model. The Patient Navigation Model is an evidence-based patient-centred intervention which supports patient empowerment through removal of systemic barriers, providing social support and promoting timely access to primary prevention services. Co-CAPTAIN includes partner organizations with long-standing experience in the field of health and social care for people with mental ill-health in the south, east, northwest and central Europe, as well as academic institutions and local governments. Based on implementation science know-how and using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation as well as the Research and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance frameworks, the Co-CAPTAIN project aims to reduce the gap in health inequalities for people with mental ill-health by reducing cancer burden and improving overall health, which will, in turn, reduce associated costs across health and social care systems in Europe. Moreover, the Co-CAPTAIN project aims to harness the transformative potential of the integrated care pathways in cancer as well as provide health and social care policy recommendations for the adoption and implementation of the Patient Navigation Model across Europe. This action is part of the Cancer Mission cluster of projects on ‘Prevention and early detection’.