MINDBLOOM: Mental Health, Inclusion, and Democratic Participation – Building a Learning and Outreach-Oriented Model for All Children
MINDBLOOM (Project ID: 101253577) is a 24-month European project that aims to strengthen children’s democratic participation by placing mental health, emotional wellbeing, and safety at its core. Funded by the EU’s CERV-2025-CHILD programme, the project focuses especially on unaccompanied children and children living in shelters or under state care, whose voices are often excluded from decision-making processes.
The project is coordinated by Associação ISCTE Conhecimento e Inovação – CVTT-ISCTE (Portugal) and brings together civil society organisations, child protection experts, and academic institutions from Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Austria. By combining research, policy work, and hands-on practice, MINDBLOOM seeks to ensure that children’s participation is not symbolic, but meaningful, safe, and sustainable.
At the heart of MINDBLOOM is the understanding that children can only participate fully when they feel safe, supported, and heard. For this reason, the project is implemented directly within shelters, residential care facilities, and child protection settings, treating these spaces as environments where participation can grow naturally from children’s everyday experiences.
Through the project, Child Participation Academies and Participation Hubs are created inside shelters, offering children safe spaces for dialogue, peer support, and civic learning. These activities are supported by trauma-informed tools and strong safeguarding mechanisms, ensuring that participation goes hand-in-hand with protection and wellbeing. Children are also actively involved in shaping the project through a Child and Youth Advisory Council, allowing them to influence decisions and engage directly with policymakers.
A key pillar of MINDBLOOM is strengthening the role of adults around children. Shelter staff, guardians, and professionals receive training on child rights, safeguarding, and participatory practices, helping them move from gatekeepers to enablers of children’s voices. At the same time, the project supports child-led initiatives and policy actions, translating children’s ideas into real change at local, national, and European levels.
"Hope For Children" CRC Policy Center (HFC) plays a central role in MINDBLOOM, contributing its long-standing expertise in child rights, safeguarding, and policy advocacy. HFC supports the development of child-friendly participation tools, leads work on safeguarding frameworks within shelters, and helps ensure that all activities fully respect the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The organisation also works closely with children to support child-led dialogue, advocacy, and policy impact, while contributing to the dissemination of project results at national and EU level.
Through MINDBLOOM, HFC continues its commitment to creating environments where every child’s voice matters, and where participation is built on trust, safety, and respect.
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