From November 14-17, 2022, the first coordination meeting of the RAY project - Resilience and Adaptability in Youth: Raising awareness and developing skills amidst the Covid-19 crisis - was held in Cyprus. 

The main goal of the project is to bolster the mental health of youth impacted by Covid-19 crisis, especially those with fewer opportunities.
More specifically wants to raise awareness of the impact of Covid-19 crisis on mental health in various contexts (e.g. workplace, education) and help youths workers and youth identify and recognize mental health issues.

The meeting was attended by all members of the partnership: the Cypriot organization "KOKEN" as the project leader, the Finnish organization "Helsinki Pioneers" and the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo as partners.

Before addressing the technical and management aspects of the project, some time was dedicated to getting to know each other, introducing the organizations and areas of competence. It was interesting to see how each of the participants, working closely with young people and for young people, had felt personally the effects that the pandemic had especially on them and their mental health. This led to stimulating reflections on how we can offer territorial solutions that can be shared among all youth and youth workers. 

In the second part of the meeting we dealt with aspects related to the organization, management and monitoring of the activities that will be developed over the coming months. Finally, we focused on the first two project outputs, which are the Youth Worker’s Toolkit and the ‘Survival Manual’ for the youth respectively, and how to make them effective and affordable for everyone. 

There was no lack to the social lunches and walks around the city of Limassol to discover the tourist and cultural sites that the area offers.