Mental well-being is crucial to overall health, encompassing the capacity to recognize one’s potential, to manage life’s stresses, and to actively participate in community life. Youth sports offer an environment that can be nurturing and conducive to both physical and mental wellbeing. However, it is important to acknowledge that various psychosocial stressors and negative experiences may also be part of this context. While sports can support development, they may also reinforce stress, gender stereotypes, and inequality; particularly girls and gender-diverse youth often face additional barriers, discrimination, and limited access to support. Children, especially young athletes, face increasing mental health challenges such as performance pressure and academic stress. Competitive environments can lead to anxiety, burnout, and emotional fatigue from an early age. MINDFIT promotes a holistic, rights-based approach to children’s mental fitness and early intervention; As EU Commissioner of Health and Food Safety, Mrs Stella Kyriakides mentioned: “You cannot separate physical health from mental health, you need to care for people in a holistic way”. The project aims to address the challenges faced by children and in particular young athletes and provide recommendations for the formation of policies to safeguard mental health and resilience of children.
MINDIFT aims to:
O1: cultivate an inclusive environment through engagement with diverse stakeholders, enabling dialogue and co-creation that address the mental health needs of young athletes.
O2: facilitate an exchange of knowledge across borders and disciplines, sharing best practices on mental fitness and support mechanisms in sports and educational contexts.
O3: ensure alignment with European mental health strategies and principles, encouraging the adoption of mental health support practices across sports organizations.
O4: enhance the expertise of national, regional, and local authorities in delivering mental health support to children and young people through targeted training and capacity-building activities.
O5: promote awareness and shared responsibility in youth mental health via a series of mainstream and social media campaigns, as well as podcasts with multiple relevant stakeholders.
CYENS Centre of Excellence (Cyprus)
GDA Sports (Cyprus)
INQUIRY FUSE (Cyprus) (formerly known as INQUIRIUM)
Symplexis (Greece)
University of Thessaly (Greece)
CESIE ETS (Italy)
Regional Government of Thessaly (Greece)
“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.” CERV-2024-CHILD-Project
Project number: 101190133
