Youth Exchange: Brave Minds, Brave futures – A youth exchange on mental health, self-expression, and resilience in uncertain times

Across Europe and beyond, young people are facing growing emotional and psychological stress. Constant exposure to global crises, social division, discrimination, and instability affects their wellbeing and shapes how they see themselves and the world around them. Many feel overwhelmed, unheard, or unsure of where they belong — and often lack spaces where they can safely process their emotions, talk about mental health, or connect with others who understand.

Brave Minds, Brave Futures is a youth exchange that responds to these realities with creativity, empathy, and courage. It brings together young people from different backgrounds to explore the links between mental health, identity, and today’s social climate — using art as a tool for reflection, self-expression, and collective healing.

Through non-formal education methods and creative practices (visual arts, performance, writing, and digital media), participants will explore:

• how external pressures impact their emotional landscape,
• how stigma and silence around mental health can limit connection,
• and how questions of identity, safety, and belonging are shaped by the world they live in.

Together, they will build a supportive, inclusive space where vulnerability is welcomed and creativity becomes a form of resistance, storytelling, and hope. Through shared experiences and co-created artistic outputs, participants will transform isolation into dialogue and reclaim the right to feel, speak, and imagine new futures.