wExchange is an EU co-funded Erasmus+ Cooperation partnership project. The overall aim of the project is to develop peer-to-peer methods to support mental health literacy and to promote mental wellbeing. This work will be done together with pupils, so that the methods focus on everyday life of young people.
The sub-objectives of the project are:
1) to promote youth mental health literacy skills (aged 13-16 years)
2) to develop peer-based activity for promotion of mental wellbeing with young people
3) to develop virtual exchange methods for schools
4) to put the knowledge gained from the project into practice
Project Τitle: wExchange – Promoting mental well-being through online exchange in secondary schools
Project Duration: 1/09/2022 – 31/08/2025
Project URL: https://wexchange.turkuamk.fi/
Project Framework & Funding: ERASMUS+ KA2-Strategic Partnerships
Funding: 400.000,00€ (UNIWA: 43.910,00€
Scientific coordinator (UNIWA): Evanthia Sakellari
Consortium – Partners:
Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland (coordinator)
Vasaramäki School, Finland
University of West Attica, Greece
9th High School of Kallithea «Manos Chatzidakis», Greece
Universidade de Lisboa & Agrupamento de Escolas de Santo Antόnio, Portugal
University of Novo Mesto & School Centre Novo Mesto, Slovenia
Klaipėda University & Klaipeda Versme School, Lithuania
Results:
The project will provide perspectives on multicultural methods and needs of mental health literacy through the following activities and results:
Peer-based mental wellbeing methods
* An informative summary of existing research and other evidence related to promotion of mental well-being of youth through peer support.
* A research-based summary of young people’s mental health literacy skills to give an important basis for the whole project.
Development of peer activity
* A training package of peer-based methods for schools to support the mental health literacy of young people. The methods are developed together with pupils online in international atmosphere.
* A report of the evaluation of piloting the methods for pupils.
* A virtual implementing guide which is a manual for teachers for using these virtual methods. The guide will be translated for 5 different languages (English, Finnish, Portuguese, Greek and Slovenian).
Development of virtual exchange
* A designed and tested framework for virtual student exchanges. The background of the framework is influenced by previous research and experiences in the implementation of virtual exchanges and virtual teaching.
* A set of two virtual camps and two workshops design by schoolteachers, together their pupils and experts from HEIs. During these different virtual methods events will be tested to support their work.
