Introducing  RECOVER – the Youth Wellbeing Recovering Kit

The Erasmus+ cooperation partnership RECOVER (Youth Wellbeing Recovering Kit) unites four organisations from Poland, Austria, Latvia, and Croatia to strengthen youth mental‑health support across Europe. The 20‑month project runs from 1 October 2024 to 31 May 2026.

Why this project matters?

COVID‑19, accelerated digitalisation and rising social pressures have left many young Europeans—especially women—struggling with anxiety, stress and burnout. Partner discussions confirmed that youth workers often “do not feel confident or equipped enough” to recognise early warning signs or to guide young people toward professional help. RECOVER therefore confronts a continent‑wide need to make mental‑health care more inclusive, participatory and stigma‑free.

Aims and approach

RECOVER has three concrete objectives:

1. Help youth workers identify early symptoms of mental‑health issues.

2. Enable them to provide meaningful guidance that prevents escalation.

3. Support young people in accessing professional services when needed.

To reach these goals the team follows the Dragon Dreaming human‑centred, participatory methodology, ensuring young people co‑design every step of the process. Work unfolds through four phases—Validation, Development, Capacitation and Advocacy—each building on the last to move from needs analysis to concrete action.

What will come out of RECOVER?

By project end, partners will deliver a Quality Mental‑Health First Aid Kit containing:

• the Dragon Dreaming training & manual,

• a stock‑taking report from participatory self‑analysis workshops,

• a comprehensive RECOVER Toolkit and Train‑the‑Trainers programme for at least 40 youth workers,

• local pilot workshops reaching 200 young people, and

• policy recommendations for wider uptake. These results will be showcased through a dedicated online library and multiplier events.

Who is behind the work?

The consortium balances complementary expertise:

• Zdrowy Kształt (Poland) coordinates project management (WP1);

• EMOTIC (Austria) leads the human‑centred analyses (WP2);

• Ecological Future Education (Latvia) steers the capacitation programme (WP3);

• EAST (Croatia) drives mainstreaming and policy outreach (WP4). Cross‑border collaboration amplifies learning and scalability, ensuring solutions that no single country could achieve alone.

Impact and European added value

RECOVER aligns with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority Inclusion & Diversity and the youth priority Quality and Innovation in Youth Work. By equipping frontline youth workers, the project aims to boost youth employability, resilience and community participation, while also offering adaptable resources for schools, sports clubs and VET providers.

RECOVER is more than a grant‑funded project; it is a cross‑border learning lab. Each partner brings a distinct lens—Polish lifestyle‑medicine expertise, Austrian design‑thinking know‑how, Latvian sustainability education and Croatian youth‑empowerment practice—so that mental‑health tools are tested against multiple real‑world realities, not created in an echo‑chamber. This diversity, together with the requirement that every partner involve “at least two local associated actors,” builds a web of local–to–European synergies that will keep the Toolkit alive long after the 20‑month funding window closes. By translating resources and mainstreaming them through youth centres, schools and NGOs, RECOVER’s results can travel far beyond the four core countries, offering a ready‑made model for any community that wants to tackle stigma and boost early intervention.

The project also champions a new standard for participatory youth work.

Instead of top‑down “awareness campaigns,” RECOVER trains youth workers in the Dragon Dreaming approach so they can co‑design solutions with young people—from needs analysis through to policy recommendations. This responds directly to EU Youth Goal #5 on Mental Health & Wellbeing, which calls for youth‑led action and the end of stigma. By the final milestone, at least 40 youth workers will be certified, 200 young people will have piloted the toolkit and an EU‑wide social‑media campaign will keep the conversation rolling. Whether you’re a policymaker, teacher, parent or young activist, RECOVER invites you to download the open‑source materials, join a local event, or simply follow the journey online—and help make youth wellbeing everyone’s business.

Stay tuned

Over the coming months, we’ll share field stories, training insights, and policy dialogues that chart RECOVER’s journey toward more mindful, resilient, and empowered European youth. Follow our updates and be part of the conversation on mental health and wellbeing!