The project is complementary to the actions carried out in Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania, Cyprus and across the EU to implement the EU Joint Action on Mental Health and Wellbeing. Also, the ARTY project promotes the mainstreaming of SDG3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
In particular, ARTY brings together actors from the fields of mental health, youth work, non-formal education, arts and culture. Innovation therefore appears in how professionals from different countries and sectors join efforts and work together, in order to develop a guide and a toolkit to enhance the capacities of youth workers, psychologists, social workers and practitioners, CSOs and organisations, in order to promote mental wellbeing of young people. ARTY intellectual outputs will equip youth workers, psychologists, social workers, practitioners and organisations with the necessary tools and competences in order to help youth with psychological disorders to address hidden pressures and stressors through art making and exploration, showing the potential of art as a healing strategy.
ARTY will implement the following activities:
1. Guide for CSOs and relevant professionals (i. e. youth workers, psychologists, social workers and practitioners) to implement art therapy sessions for youth with psychological disorders online.
The guide will be field-tested and evaluated by the users. The Guide will consist roadmaps and good practices to utilize digital art therapy to ensure mental wellbeing of youth. The Guide will enable the target groups to offer digital art therapy sessions to their beneficiaries.
2. Capacity Building program for youth workers, psychologists, social workers and practitioners.
Aim of the program is to foster target groups’ ability to enhance youth mental wellbeing and to empower youth to deal with the challenges imposed by the pandemic.
3. Awareness Raising Toolkit for CSOs on the impact of COVID-19 to youth with developing or existing mental health conditions.
The toolkit will enable the beneficiaries to raise public awareness, to lead and contribute to the development of youth policies and strategies to help youth with psychological disorders to address hidden pressures and stressors through art making and exploration, showing the potential of art as a healing strategy.