The European Project BALANCE Has Started!

On September 30, the International Erasmus+ BALANCE project, aimed at supporting young people in building a healthier and more balanced physical, mental and social life, began its work with the participation of DNU.

  

BALANCE is a new project co-financed by the Erasmus+ program (KA2 - Youth Sector), the goal of which is: to support young people through common European values in developing healthy habits - physical, mental and emotional - through education, active participation and inclusion.

BALANCE (Building Active Lifestyles and Nurturing Cultural Engagement) is an acronym that stands for “Building Active Lifestyles and Nurturing Cultural Engagement”. The name expresses the project’s mission, which focuses on three main tasks:1) raising awareness about healthy habits (creating a unique database of inspiring role models and ambassadors – personal profiles and examples of young people who embody a healthy lifestyle and European values); 2) providing education for young people and youth workers (developing a dedicated, freely accessible online platform with practical training materials, workshops and methodologies to support youth workers and educators in forming healthy habits); 3) forming healthy habits (documenting and presenting the 365-day journey of young people forming healthy habits – from small daily changes to big success stories).

The joint European initiative is supported by a consortium of universities and institutions from Europe, which together create an innovative and accessible platform to inspire and support positive change. This is a joint effort of representatives of 8 universities from 7 European countries, each of which brings valuable experience in the field of health, education, digital innovation and youth empowerment. In particular, the project involves 80 teachers and youth workers, 40 youth ambassadors and 30 mentors from such educational institutions in Europe as: Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), Comenius University (Bratislava, Slovakia), Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (Kayaani, Finland), University of Bordeaux (Bordeaux, France), University of La Laguna (San Cristobal de la Laguna, Spain), University of Malaga (Malaga, Spain), Polytechnic University of Santarém (Santarém, Portugal) and the only participant from Ukraine - Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. The multi-disciplinary teams of BALANCE educators are specially trained through workshops and mentoring to support the health and well-being of young people. European students themselves join the participants as role models who share their experience of combining study, sport and mental health.

 

BALANCE teams from different countries solemnly presented themselves and discussed common institutional goals and visions for supporting youth well-being. In particular, during the presentations of each partner university, the teams exchanged views on promising areas of work and voiced their own expectations from the project.

 

Інформаційно-аналітичне агентство
Дніпровського національного університету