Empowering Young People During and After COVID-19

Young people's health, and mental health in particular, has become a broader, global issue, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. If before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it seemed that there were support systems that were accessible to young people, during the pandemic itself it became clear that many young people had lost touch with their support systems and that help was out of reach. The Erasmus+ Youth Courage research, involving 5 European partner organisations from Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Italy and Slovenia, covering 561 young people in two phases, carried out in 2022 and 2024, has shown that there is a need to improve access to services and professional support for young people. To this end, 345 youth workers were also interviewed, also in two different time periods, in 2022 and 2024. We present the key findings of young people in relation to different aspects of their lives, concerning physical and mental health, social aspects, challenges or barriers such as anxiety, social inclusion and access to support, and the findings of youth workers. In this paper we draw mainly on the findings of the youth survey and focus on the findings or conclusions that emerged during the project.


Keywords: young people, mental health, COVID-19, support systems