As part of the Mobility Friends project department team, I am currently working on the FREE YOUR MIND – START NEW LIFE project. 📌 The main goal of this project is to protect young people at risk of social exclusion from marginalization. For this project, the main materials will focus on the following areas: learning to cope with stress and strong emotions, overcoming stereotypes, becoming independent, choosing positive communication, building self-esteem, developing one's own potential, and engaging in social initiatives. 📌 So far, my colleagues and I have worked on a Manual for trainers, of which we have also made a Portuguese version. In addition, we have also translated a board game "Milestone Cards" for young people (it consists of several cards), with the aim of encouraging, facilitating, and improving the engagement of young people when it comes to thinking, speaking, and sharing their feelings, needs, and emotions. 📌 Soon we will organize various workshops with some of our students and will have the opportunity to include young people with special needs in these events, on our campus. We are looking forward to the next results of this project.

https://epale.ec.europa.eu/pt/content/free-your-mind-start-new-life-ka220-you-parcerias-de-cooperacao-na-juventude-os-primeiros

📌 The main goal of this project is to protect young people at risk of social exclusion from marginalization. For this project, the primary materials will focus on the following areas: learning to cope with stress and strong emotions, overcoming stereotypes, becoming independent, choosing positive communication, building self-esteem, developing one's own potential, and engaging in social relationship initiatives.

📌 So far, my colleagues and I involved in this project have worked on a Manual for Trainers, Manual for Youth, of which we have also made a Portuguese version. In addition, we have also created a "Board Game - Milestone Cards," and translated a board game "Milestone Cards" for young people (it consists of several cards), with the aim of encouraging, facilitating, and improving the engagement of young people in terms of thinking, speaking, and sharing their feelings, needs, and emotions.

📌 We have organized various workshops with some of our students and had the opportunity to include young people from various groups in these events on our Campus. We successfully concluded the workshops with young people, using exercise materials from the Toolbook for Youth, resulting from this project, and translations of the outcomes into the Portuguese version.

Soon, we will start making announcements and integrating more incentives into this project.

https://epale.ec.europa.eu/pt/content/free-your-mind-start-new-life-ka220-you-parcerias-de-cooperacao-na-juventude

Free Your Mind - Start New Life is a KA2 project in the Erasmus+ program that promotes mental health and its development among young people by providing various innovative techniques for raising awareness, attention, identifying and dealing with different emotions, as well as providing techniques for coping with priorities.

Youth on Board from North Macedonia is among the three partner organizations working on the project, which includes a team from Poland and Portugal.

Through our work, we created a Tool Book for young people that offers techniques and methods for coping with difficult or unknown emotions through their identification, their roots, and their impact on our mental health. It also includes techniques for training our awareness and raising the level at which an individual can feel comfortable and unique. Finally, the Tool Book also provides methods for organizing priorities, first through their identification, considering their importance and effect, and finally dealing with them in a concrete way.

Additionally, Youth on Board also worked on creating a Tool Book for trainers that contains various examples of practices and activities that can be used for directly addressing stereotypes and prejudices, attention, positive communication, and how to deal with stress.

Our new card game on "Board Game - Milestone Cards" is available on the "Board Game - Milestone Cards" platform, a creative method for dealing with emotions and their effects.

The "Free Your Mind" project has successfully run its course and has come to an end. Now it's time for its results to be promoted and used by the public for positive feedback!

https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/node/341597

In Lodz, a meeting of project partners for "Free Your Mind" took place. Representatives from partnering organizations in Portugal, Macedonia, and Poland discussed the next phases of the project. The Polish partner showcased exercises from developed workshop scenarios, demonstrating the practical application of the crafted content and explaining their premises. The meeting reinforced the collaboration and commitment of the partners to the project's ongoing development.

We invite you to explore "Body and Movement in Emotional Work" - the unique Trainer's Digital Library! In this extraordinary collection, you'll find 15 instructional videos (10-15 minutes long) that develop the ability to recognize, express, and regulate emotions. From expression, setting boundaries, working with tension, to massage techniques and breathing - each topic is covered in three videos.

Don't wait, discover the world of body and movement techniques but first watch the videos:

Mr. Herculano Andrade – Graduated in Psychology, with a master’s in clinical and Health, postgraduate in Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, he also has a degree in Sociology. With specific training in formative education, as well as victim support. He has been coordinator in Braga for about 7 years, where he is directly responsible for Vocational Education and Training for young people and adults.

In the field of psychology, he performs clinical support functions, in an NGO, where he promotes and promotes strategies for children and young people with different problems, mainly school absenteeism. In this context, it is also responsible for the implementation and promotion of social projects, whose vision and promotion are social integration, health and well-being and employment.

He is an active member of the Elderly Protection Commission (CPI – Comissão e Proteção ao Idoso), an NGO that intervenes in the well-being and rights of the elderly in northern Portugal.
In recent years he has worked regularly as a trainer in Erasmus projects, in education, psychology and social, namely with groups of teachers, psychologists and other school leaders, from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Greece, Czech Republic, among other countries. He is fluent in English.

Prof. Monika Markovska – is a professor in the University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bitola with a doctorate in philosophy of management. Monika has a background of education in Management of human resources, Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship and she has managed to build her professional background well. As she has published many papers, thesis and original works she has built a reputation and especially in analyzing management methods, work methods and improvement of management quality.

In addition to her professional teaching status and position, Monika is also a part of the NGO “Evropska Gledna Tocka” in Bitola where she provides non-formal education to aspiring young people. Monika has participated in many projects, seminars and events herself and has been part of the organizational process. She is a leading trainer in the non-formal education sphere in Bitola.

Monika aside from her role as an educator in a formal space as a professor and in a non-formal space as a trainer has taken working roles as a consultant and mentor. She has been part of consultant and evaluation teams on many developed projects and businesses across the country and further. The professor is also fluent in communicating in English through her education and participation in many international projects and initiatives.

We would like to remind you that we grant a Creative Commons license for all results developed within the project. This means that you can download, duplicate, share further, and use them in your work.

Our materials are available in the International Digital Resources Database. We hope that publishing the results in various databases will contribute to a broader use of the developed materials.

The second meeting of the Free Your Mind project partners took place in Barcelos, where the main focus was on presenting the results achieved so far and planning the next stages. Meeting participants also discussed strategies for disseminating the project as well as rules for financial settlements and documentation. The constructive discussion paved the way for effective continuation of activities and successful expansion of the project's reach.

The inaugural meeting of the "Free Your Mind" project partners took place in Shtip, North Macedonia. This was a significant event where representatives from partnering organizations across three countries gathered to discuss the project's objectives and plans for the coming months. Given that it was the partnership's first meeting, ample time was devoted to discussing the project's planned outcomes.

Following the formal part of the meeting, participants embarked on a joint expedition to a nearby mountain and a tour of Shtip. The aim of this part was to foster and strengthen relationships between the partners, also on an informal level. This type of activity not only facilitated better acquaintance but also reinforced everyone's commitment to the project's further development.