Positive mental health for GEN Z - NO MOre Fear Of Missing Out

Background NOMO FOMO project partners applied for this project funding, to respond to the following needs: (1) In Ireland, young people aged 18 to 29 years of age reported significantly greater mental health issues during the pandemic. Young adults particularly suffered with higher levels of loneliness, less tolerance of uncertainty and lower perceived control over anxiety related events, and those who spent more than 4 hours per day on social media, reported significantly poorer mental health. (2) Research from the Students Union in Rzeszow University highlighted the need to address the stigma surrounding youth mental health to provide targeted support to those in need. (3) Research conducted by EUphoria has identified heightened anxiety levels among Greek and Spanish youth and this problem is exacerbated by their high dependence on social media and their inability to reconcile their real-world experiences with their online persona. (4) Reports from youth organisations working on the ground in Portugal, Germany and France which highlighted the need to find new solutions to address youth mental health concerns in the wake of the pandemic. Partners applied for this project to respond to these needs through targeted, youth-centred supports. Objectives Through developing and implementing this project, our core objectives were to: (1) 'Unpack' the term FOMO to see what lies beneath and provide a toolkit of interactive learning resources to address the elements identified. (2) Support young people and youth workers to understand how their mental health and well-being is impacted by social media. (3) Support a new generation of young people to become peer youth leaders in addressing youth mental health, and to become ambassadors of youth mental health in their communities. (4) Provide a robust catalogue of youth mental health training materials addressed to youth workers and young people so that these groups can be empowered to address youth mental health through a community-based, bottom-up approach to mental health awareness and education. (5) Engage young people and youth workers in transnational training activities, and support this cohort of young people and youth workers to join a transnational community of practice, supported through the MOOC platform. (6) Provide free access to all training materials developed through a bespoke MOOC platform, which will be available in all partner languages – English, French, German, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. Implementation Throughout this project, NOMO FOMO partners have implemented the following activities to support our work in developing, implementing, and animating this project and its outputs: 1- Hosted 4 Transnational Partner meeting, 2 fully in-person in Spain and Ireland, 1 hybrid in France and 1 online, due to the conflict in Ukraine. 2- Hosted 3 Transnational Training Activities, reaching 38 individuals in total - 29 youth workers and 9 young people. All of these Transnational Events took place in person, which partners were very happy about considering how our work has been impacted by COVID-19 over the last 3 years. 3- Hosted a total of 240 people across 7 face-to-face multiplier events, far surpassing the target of 160 people foreseen in the application. 4- Participated in 4 online meetings throughout the project, which helped us to plan our work and keep up to date with our progress, especially when we could not meet in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic towards the start of the project. 5- Delivered the peer leadership training to 62 young people in each country; engaged 52 youth workers in delivering the in-service training programme and brought 86 youth workers and young people together to participate in the smartfeed training. Achievements Through this project, we have developed five concrete outputs: IO1– NOMO FOMO Toolkit of Interactive Infographic Resources which focus on ‘unpacking’ FOMO and engaging young people in interactive, digital learning activities that they can access through their smartphones. These infographics contain QR Codes which bring young people directly to self-directed learning resources presented as videos, quizzes, digital breakout and call-to-action activities. IO2– NOMO FOMO In-Service Training Programme which supports front-line youth workers to better understand FOMO, utilise the resources presented in the interactive infographics and develop their own infographic resources. IO3– Peer Leadership programme which works directly with young people to empower them to become peer leaders in promoting positive mental health. IO4– Smartfeed Training Programme which supports youth workers and young people to manage their social media intake. IO5– MOOC and Community of Practice which provides young people, youth workers and parents with access to the NOMO FOMO interactive infographics, the smart-feed training to support young people to address social media addiction, and all learning content developed. Accessible at: https://nomofomomooc.eu/