Empowering the Mental Health of Refugee and Disadvantaged Youth

Aims of the tool

The tool aims to strengthen the emotional wellbeing, self-awareness and psychosocial resilience of refugee, migrant and disadvantaged young people. It helps them recognise their strengths, explore suitable self-care strategies, build supportive connections and take manageable steps towards their goals. It also equips youth workers and mentors with practical approaches for supporting participation and facilitating access to appropriate professional help.

Description of the tool

This practical guide supports refugee, migrant and disadvantaged young people in understanding their emotional needs, recognising personal strengths and developing everyday strategies for wellbeing. It also provides youth workers, trainers and mentors with approaches for creating supportive learning environments and helping young people access appropriate support.

Developed within the Erasmus+ project “Inclusion of Resilient Minds: Skills for Refugees and Marginalized Youth,” the guide connects mental wellbeing with social inclusion, supportive relationships and personal development. It recognises that adapting to unfamiliar environments involves both personal challenges and practical barriers, and encourages participants to progress at their own pace.

The guide covers:
• Self-awareness, personal strengths and sources of motivation.
• Mental wellbeing, psychosocial resilience and supportive relationships.
• Recognising emotions, stress and individual support needs.
• Emotion regulation, compassionate reflection and grounding exercises.
• Everyday self-care and identifying helpful routines.
• Accessing health, psychosocial and other support services.
• Setting manageable goals and responding to setbacks.
• Trauma-informed mentoring and cooperation between support organisations.

The learning approach combines accessible explanations with reflection exercises, illustrative examples and practical planning tools. Activities include an inner strengths map, an inner compass reflection, an emotion and mood tracker, a self-care canvas, a “Thought Detective” exercise, micro-goal planning and a personal support contact card.

The materials can be used for individual reflection, mentoring or facilitated group activities. Participants choose what to share, and facilitators can adapt the exercises to different language levels, abilities and circumstances. The guide supports education and everyday wellbeing; it does not replace professional mental health assessment or treatment.

Learning outcomes

By working through the relevant activities, participants will be able to:
• Recognise personal strengths and identify examples from their everyday experiences.
• Describe emotions, stressors and needs in ways they feel comfortable sharing.
• Explain resilience as a process involving flexibility, self-compassion and support.
• Identify and try suitable self-care or grounding practices, reflecting on what feels helpful.
• Distinguish a difficult situation from a broad negative judgement about themselves.
• Identify trusted people and appropriate services they can approach for support.
• Develop a personal wellbeing plan with manageable routines and support options.
• Set small, realistic goals and adjust them when circumstances change.
• Reflect on progress without treating setbacks as personal failure.

Youth workers and mentors will be able to recognise participation barriers, facilitate activities with choice and sensitivity, maintain appropriate boundaries and help participants connect with qualified services when needed.