Project Scope
MINDBLOOM: Mental Health, Inclusion, and Democratic Participation – Building a Learning and Outreach-Oriented Model for All Children
The MINDBLOOM aims to make democratic participation genunicely accessible to children whose life experiences have systematically denied them that possibility. It is a project about addressing, responding, and mitigating the silent disqualifiers trauma, instability, neglect that prevent many children from being seen as capable political actors. By focusing first on emotional well-being, MINDBLOOM aims to create conditions under which empowerment, agency, and participation of unaccompanied children can emerge and take root. It does not aim to simply include those children in existing systems, but to reconfigure those systems around the needs and realities of those most excluded.
General Objective
The project particular focus on children at risk aims at ensuring that children whose voices are least heard yet most often excluded. The particular focus on children at risk aims at ensuring that children whose voices are least heard yet most essential, are structurally integrated into civic life.
Specific Objectives
- To build foundational civiv competencies among vulnerable children by establishing inclusive, child-led participation academies
- To improve children's emotional and psychological readiness for participation by integrating trauma-informed, mental health-supportive mechanisms
- To ensure sustained, inclusive participation mechanisms for the most marginalized children by embedding child-led governance structures and accountability systems
- To close institutional gaps in guardianship and representation by training professional to facilitate participatory practices aligned with children's rights
- To foster long-term civic empowerment by enabling children to co-lead community initiatives and implement policy proposals in real-world settings
Partners
- Portugal: Associacao Iscte Conhecimento E Inovacao - Centro De Valorizacao E Transferencia De Tecnologias (CVTT-ISCTE) (Coordinator)
- Cyprus: "Hope For Children" CRC Policy Center; CIIM Innovations Ltd / University of Limassol
- Portugal: CVTT-ISCTE; Aldeias de Crianças SOS Portugal; InPulsar; Casa Pia de Lisboa
- Bulgaria: Center for the Study of Democracy; RE-ACT Association
- Austria: INTERAKTION – Verein für ein Interkulturelles Zusammenleben
Funding Reference
- The project is co-funded by the CERV-2025-CHILD programme of the European Commission.
Project Number
- MINDBLOOM (Project ID: 101253577)
Implementation Period
