"<< Background >>The COVID-19 crisis had consequences in all the aspects of our daily life regardless of age and social differences. The lockdown measures affected all young people who had to face such a limited and uncertain situation in a phase of their development that has already some peculiar difficulties. The gap increases if we consider youth from rural areas and those at risk of social exclusion. Although youth are the major users of digital tools and social networks as a way to stay connected, they have been deprived of elements such as freedom and interaction, that are essential in this phase of life. On the one hand the main negative impacts on youth caused by this crisis are: rise of physical and mental stress with consequences on mental health; increase of isolation and social exclusion; alteration and challenges in family relationships; rise of risk of online pressure and cyberbullying; uncertainty about life plans. A research conducted by the European Youth Forum highlighted that due to COVID-19 nearly 40% of young people across the globe report being uncertain about their future.The CoviPrev survey, published by the French National Public Health Agency, shows that the alteration of anxious status during the lockdown has affected above all young people between 25 and 34 years of age. An investigation conducted by Ipsos and the Italian Ministry for Equal Opportunities and Family, covering a sample of young people aged 18-34, in Italy, Germany, France and Spain showed that in Italy the economic and labour uncertainty has questioned young people's life plans more than in France and Spain. A research of the Psychological Clinic of Aristotle University in Greece shows that 70% of respondents (age group 18-39) declared they faced much higher levels of loneliness and isolation, while 71% declare that they have high levels of anger. The study “My well-being”, conducted by Vilnius University (Lithuania), shows that more than half of the young surveyed were negatively affected by the changed study process during the pandemic, and a quarter indicated that they experienced great stress due to limited access to various services. On the other hand, according to 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, sport is a tool to enhance mental health by delivering social, psychological and physiological benefits, so it may be a key to overcome critical conditions.The project foresees the application of creative approaches to combatting the psychological issues and the negative consequences of unpredictable and/or traumatic events that may affect young people. It primarily focuses on the empowerment of young people, in particular those living in disadvantaged situations or in vulnerable conditions by helping them overcome stress and discomforts they may face in their daily lives. The project intends to apply dance and other forms of art as effective tools to support youth to concentrate on oneself in order to be able to control one's body, release the stress, regain a balance and consequently to improve the quality of their life and the relations with the others. The project promotes the quality of youth work and the capacity building of professionals working with youth, equipping them with innovative and creative methodologies that can make their work more effective in dealing with youth challenges. During the project, young people will be involved in an online training to develop an educational empowering path. Youth workers and professionals of dance and other forms of art dealing with young people will learn new methodologies and activities applying dance and arts for better addressing youth challenges. They will transfer their knowledge to the organisations' staff, to improve their actions in the field of youth. Finally, an App, with interactive and customisable contents, combining mindfulness, dance and arts, will be developed to support young people's wellbeing and help them in developing healthy habits.<< Objectives >>The project DASS aims to deal with challenges affecting youth, creating an educational path through training applying therapeutic effects of dance and other forms of art, associated with experiences lived through other artistic disciplines, divided into different modules. The project aims to develop a creative approach that may act in the long-term to benefit young people and their well-being while tackling the negative impacts of the current crisis. Objectives: - Foster creative and artistic responses for youth living in difficult situations; - Develop artistic sensibility while promoting well-being and tackling mental and physical stress of youth; - Develop the ability to understand and describe feelings without fear of judgment and the ability of self-expression; - Providing long term benefits for young people by applying methodologies of dance along with complementary artistic tools, for young people who are experiencing stress and discomfort as negative consequences of the pandemic; - Promoting social inclusion, diversity and tolerance, as well as the intercultural dialogue - Foster the positive and educational use of digital tools among young people, creating a safe virtual learning environment; - Enhance competences of youth workers through the training on innovative methodologies to apply in their daily work; - Improve capacity building of youth workers and enhance high quality of youth work; - Enhance the ability of partners’ staff to deal with youth challenges and improve the impact of the organisations in the field of youth.<< Implementation >>During the project DASS the consortium will develop three project results, by implementing the following activities R1: Dancing and artistic empowering training (M2- M9) A1.Review of the methodologies, practices and activities (M2-M3) Leader: Essevesse A2.Surveys to understand young people’s discomforts (M3-M4) Leader: Active Youth A3.Creation of the contents for the 5 modules (M3-M5) Leader: CEIPES A4.Online training for young people (M5-M9) Leader: Essevesse A5.Collection of feedback from the participants (M9) Leader: Smart Umbrella R2: DASS Booklet (M10-M17) A1: Collecting feedbacks from the participants to the LTT activity (M10) Leader: CEIPES A2: Collecting the methodologies and the activities. (M11-M13) Leader: Diversity HUB A3: Creation of the Booklet (M14-M17) Leader: Active Youth R3: App ""Mind-yourself"" (M10-M24) A1: graphics of the app (M10-M11) Leader CEIPES A2: content development (M11-M14) Leader: Active Youth A3: content creation - (M14-M19) Leader: Diversity HUB A4: translation of contents (M19-M20) Leader: Smart Umbrella A5: uploading the contents in the app (M20-M21) Leader: CEIPES A6: initial testing of the app (M21-M22) Leader: Essevesse A7: launch and promotion of the app (M23-M24) Leader: CEIPES During the project, the consortium will implement 5 transational meetings: TM1 - Kick-off meeting in France (M1) TM2 in Lithuania (M6) TM3 in Greece (M12) TM4 in Poland (M18) TM5 in France (M24) The staff of the partners will be involved in a LTT activity (M10) that will take place in Italy. Essevesse will train the professionals working in the organisations of the partnership, on the use and application of dance and other forms of art for therapeutic purposes, to develop innovative tools for the empowerment of youth. For the good sharing and promotion of project's results, the partners will organise the following multiplier events: Local Multiplier events in Italy, Poland, Greece and Lithuania (M23) Final event - Festival ""EYTA"" (M24)<< Results >>Project result 1 includes several activities, namely a review of methodologies and practices applying dance and arts for empowering youth, a survey investigating youth's discomforts and the creation of educational modules, aimed to the development of an educational path in the form of an online training, applying dance and movement methodologies associated with experiences lived and other artistic disciplines. The training is divided into 5 different modules, as follows: 1. Analysis of the stressful factors in young people’s daily life, above all those incurred since the pandemic began, and introduction to the methodologies of dance and movement; 2. Tailoring the therapeutic approach according to the issues raised. Working on stressful situations, distress, fears and the reactions; 3. Working on expressing the feelings and developing processes of defusing, for one’s self and the interaction with others; 4. Working on creating positive physical and mental responses; 5. Evaluating the positive effects and contributing to the creation of a booklet with methodologies applied and some exercises for maintaining long term benefits. The training will provide long-term benefits for young people living stressful situations and facing the consequences of the restrictions due to the pandemic. Project result 2 will consist of a Booklet containing methodologies, practices, activities to tackle negative feelings of stressful events, addressing youth workers, educators professionals from dance and arts field working closely with youth. The Booklet will provide creative and effective tools that will enhance the quality of youth work and increase the effective response to youth challenges. Project Result 3 will comprise a self-help mobile application for youth combining mindfulness, dance and art. The activities to create this tool include the brainstorming, development, construction, testing, and launch of the app. The App provides customisable paths for young people, suggesting artistic activities, audios, videos and informative tabs that can support the users in improving their well-being and their daily habits."