Feeling You(th). Phase II: Youth Forum

With its “Feeling You(th)” project, the P&V Foundation aims to promote the mental health of young people. The project consists of three phases: research, project call, and action, all accompanied by a youth forum. This project offers around twenty young people aged 18 to 27, from diverse backgrounds and from all over Belgium, the opportunity to gain experience in active citizenship. After participating in the first research phase, the youth forum gathered for a weekend to discuss with the pre-selected organisations that pitched their projects.

Composition and objective of the Youth Forum

The P&V Foundation fights against social exclusion of young people and promotes active citizenship among them. To achieve this, the Foundation supports projects on topics that directly affect young people, such as the digital divide, the future of the labour market and education, or the mental health of young people. We believe it is important that young people themselves are heard and that they can think and decide with us on these topics.

At the beginning of 2024, we called on young people from all over Belgium who wanted to think with researchers about possible measures and actions to improve the mental health of young people. This allowed them to give direction to our call for projects and thus to the type of projects we will financially support.

Our Youth Forum is composed of a heterogeneous group of young people aged 18 to 27. They differ in terms of education, migration background, place of residence, interests and hobbies, with or without experience of mental health issues, etc.

Involvement of the Youth Forum

During the first research phase, the young people participated in a reflection session with researchers. This laid the foundation for our Feeling You(th) call for projects.

Then, they were able to take part in an interactive discussion with researchers and the public during our inspiration event, Mental State of the Youth.

The Young People as Jury Members

Before the weekend, each young person read and evaluated application files for our project call as a jury member. During the weekend, the young people of the Youth Forum were trained and guided to fully assume their role as jury members. They participated in workshops on how to ask good questions and make group decisions. At the same time, they got to know each other better through fun and collective activities, meeting researchers and participating in activities that promote group cohesion and mental health, such as karaoke and a connecting dance workshop.

On Saturday, accompanied by researchers, the young people attended the presentations of the pre-selected organisations and were able to ask questions to better understand their projects. On Sunday, the final jury met. Together, young people and researchers selected the winning projects of our Feeling You(th) projects call.

What’s Next?

In 2025, it’s time for action, with the implementation of the selected projects. The Youth Forum will have the opportunity to visit the winning projects and ask all their questions. The young people will be able to discover on-site what the organisations are doing to promote the mental health of young people.