On January 22, 2024 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the kick off meeting of the YouMind (Youth Individual Sports Mindset) project was hosted by EUSA, gathering all of the project partners to discuss the next steps that will be undertaken to realize the project's objectives.

YouMind is a small-scale partnership project that aims to raise awareness about the importance of mental health in sport and to develop different strategies to prevent mental health issues for young athletes. The ideas developed jointly with all of the partners will be presented in a form of promotional video and guidelines sharing the best practices with athletes and sport organizations. The project will last two years and will consist of various activities, such as workshops, surveys and meetings.

The kick off meeting started with a short introduction of each participant, representing four partner organizations: EUSA Institute (SLO), ENGSO Youth (SWE), University of Miskolc Sport Club MEAFC (HUN) and CUS Salerno (ITA). All of the participating organizations presented their areas of work and shared previous experiences in the field of mental health and sport that could be used during the project realization.

Afterwards, EUSA representatives started the official part of the kick off meeting. Hristina Hristova, EUSA Media Officer, briefly introduced the topic of the YouMind project, explaining the idea and its development process. Andrej Pisl, EUSA Communications and Projects Manager, presented EUSA Institute, its projects and work, evenly moving to the project matters.

During the meeting all the partners agreed on next steps that will be enforced to meet the expectations of the project establishments. Meeting attendees covered the project's background, overarching objectives, structure, timelines, and delved into specific tasks such as communication, management, research, project milestones and final evaluation.

The partners will meet again during online meetings and in Hungary in July during European Universities Games 2024.

YouMind is a two-year project funded by the European Union, coordinated by the EUSA Institute (SLO). Project partners include: EUSA Institute (SLO), ENGSO Youth (SWE), University of Miskolc Sport Club MEAFC (HUN) and CUS Salerno (ITA).

For the list of projects where EUSA has been and is engaged in, please see www.eusa.eu/projects