Problem gambling and gambling addiction is a serious but often overlooked issue both in Finland and Cyprus. An estimated 124 000 residents (3,3%) in Finland have a gambling problem and nearly 20% has a relative whose gambling was out of control. A recent school survey showed that 7.1% of eighth and ninth graders said they gambled once or twice weekly. The study released by Cyprus' National Betting Authority in March 2018 showed alarming figures. 13 % of gamblers show symptoms of possible problematic behaviour and 6% can be described as pathological gamblers. Cypriot pupils, both boys and girls gamble the most out of all pupils in the EU.The Cyprus National Addictions Authority has prepared an Action Plan for battling pathological gambling for 2018-2020. Sosped Foundation has gained knowledge of problem gambling and developed effective peer support, training and mentoring models since 2008. Pelirajat'on/Limit'less Gambling is Sosped Foundation's flag ship and it has achieved broad coverage in Finland, rapid growth and proven effectiveness. The next step is to provide the operating model for international use. YEU Cyprus has a long history and strong expertise in organising and delivering training courses and projects on different topics, focusing always on youth development, awareness raising and capacity building. Sosped Foundation, together with EU Cyprus have shared knowledge and best practices, to learn from each other and to develop their activities to better suit working with young people. In both countries, there's a demand for knowledge, new approaches, effective models and concrete tools that support young people, significant others and families who are suffering from problem gambling. There's also room for new ideas for preventive work among young people. Through exchange of expertise and good practices the project aimed to improve the understanding, competence and ability of both organisations to support their target groups and work with young people. This was achieved by organizing 5-day learning events in Finland and Cyprus. The events included training, workshops and study visits. The focus was at developing and promoting quality youth work in both organisations. Main results of the project were empowerment of the participants and learning on three levels: individual participants, professional personnel and organisations. The results were achieved through transnational meetings and learning events and monitoring and evaluating the project activities. Sosped Foundation organised a learning event to increase awareness about problem gambling and introduce an effective (peer-support based) model for tackling the problem locally. YEU Cyprus organised a learning event involving new methods to reach young people. The goal was find new ways to raise awareness among youth and develop non-formal education and experiential learning. CENTRAL RESULTS IN BOTH COUNTRIESCYPRUS 1) 6 trained young people & 4 trained personnel 2) Increased awareness about problem gambling and a model for tackling the problem locally 3) Development of organisation's youth work (problem gamblers and their significant others as new target group, new training, peer support & mentoring models) 4) New perspective & experience in European/Erasmus+ co-operation 5) A translated (English) workbook to organize peer-support activities for people suffering from problematic gambling 6) A concrete project idea in order to start raise awareness about problematic gambling SOSPED FOUNDATION 1) 6 trained volunteers & experts by experience, 4 trained personnel 2) New & effective methods to reach young people and support them 3) Development of organisation's youth work (young people as a new target group, new training, peer support & mentoring models) 4) New perspective and experience in European/Erasmus+ co-operation Both partners gained awareness of best practices, new ideas and tools to work with current and future target groups. Both organizations managed to also get strategic partnerships with different organizations involved in the project. YEU Cyprus employees learned to recognize problem gambling and acquire tools to begin discussions with young people. In Finland Sosped's personnel and volunteers learned YEU Cyprus' best practices and adapted them to Sosped's projects and employees professional skills. Project started in February 2019 and ended in January 2020. Learning events were held in June and August. Three Transnational project meetings were held: In March, May and September. The evaluation of the project was done during the autumn of 2019.

"Stiftelsen Fryshuset's and Sosped Foundation's project ""LEAPE - Training of leaders and peer tutors for the wounded generations"" aimed to enhance social inclusion of psycho socially challenged youth through peer support & leadership skills. Project main goal was to exchange practices to enhance social inclusion of socially excluded youth and young adults. The project did this by promoting empowerment through peer-tutor training for Swedish young people and leadership-training for Finnish young adult who are suffering from mental health problems. Project started in February 2018 and ended in January 2019.Youth work is more developed in Sweden where as low threshold mental health work is more developed in Finland. The project contributed to mutual learning and sharing of good practice and knowledge between the partner organizations, but also plan long-term implementation of it in each organization. Also cooperation between organizations working in the field of youth development - and mental health services is inadequate. The Sosped Foundation Culture house- concept, where mentally challenged people are being trained to become functional peers, doesn't exist outside of Finland. Fryshuset instead has a several years experience of training hundreds and hundreds of youth and other target groups with their value -based leadership program.Through exchange of expertise and good practice the project aimed to empower youth by training them to become peer tutors and empower young adults by training them to become youth leaders. The project activities focused especially on youth and young adults (13-35 years) who were suffered from mental problems and social exclusion. Sosped has been working with young adults (18-35 yers) who are suffering from mental health problems whereas Fryshuset had been working with young people (13-30). If Culture houses (and other low threshold mental health services) are not able to find new ways to empower long term participants, these people might experience a relapse or/ and they become a new reason for younger participants for NOT to attend to Culture houses, because they´ll become passive or chronic. With the help of leadership skills these people would not only be able to lead themselves and others but also be able to grow in responsibility, independence and management and self management skills. Fryshuset, like many other youth houses in Sweden has had a challenge of attracting youngsters who are in the most vulnerable position. Those who are suffering from mental health problems and are socially excluded from the society. These people are often the ones who are too afraid to attend to ""normal"" activities with other youngsters. Training of Fryshuset's Särskolan's students to become peer tutors gave Fryshuset sufficient tools to reach out to an entirely new and often forgotten target group. Project activities consisted of five different meetings:1) (2/2018) A 2 days preparative transnational project meeting (2 days) in Stockholm where both learning event where planned 2) (4/2018) A 5 days learning event in Stockholm during which Sosped organized a peer tutor training to Fryshuset's 14 youngsters. Two of the trainers were Sosped's peer tutors.3) (5/2018) A 5 days learning event in Helsinki where Fryshuset trained Sosped's 12 peer tutors to become youth leaders4) (9/2018) A 2 days evaluative transnational project meeting in Helsinki5) (12/2018) A 5 days follow-up transnational project meeting in Finland during which all the trained peer tutors where met one more time.After the project Sosped got a leadership model with which it could train peer tutors to deepen their leadership skills. Fryshuset got instead peer tutor model with which they could serve the needs of youngsters who are suffering from mental health problems."

"Successful European youth work needs more know-how of how to prevent youngsters suffering from mental health problems to falling out from the society (becoming NEET) and how to empower NEETs while they still are NEETs. European youth work organizations must also find new concrete solutions (both proactive and reactive) to respond to the psycho-social problems of the youngsters. To answer to these challenges, Sosped Foundation, Stiftelsen Fryshuset and YEU Cyprus had a partnership to enhance social inclusion of youth suffering from psycho-social problems. These persons are often either in a risk of becoming NEET (RNEET) or are already NEETs. Project SCALE - Exchange of experiences and knowledge of contextual youth work"" aimed to develop a new kind of framework that describes youth work from a contextual perspective. Framework works also as a tool for professionals working with youth. PROJECT's CENTRAL RESULTS 1) Exchange of experience of RNEET and NEET from contextual perspectives 2) Knowledge & capacity building 2.1 RNEETs and professionals working with RNEETs learned aspects from reactive contexts and how to work there 2.2 NEETs and professionals working with NEETs learned aspects of proactive contexts and how to work there Project's main result was an innovative framework that combines the aspects of both RNEET and NEET and reactive and proactive contexts.Scale project consisted of one preparative TPM (March 2019), one short-term learning event(June 2019) and an evaluative TPM (September 2019).Learning event, that was held in Stockholm, brought together youth professionals from three different countries and a variety of youth, that are (or have been) in a risk of becoming socially excluded. SOSPED'S CULTURE HOUSES IN FINLAND Culture houses provide low-threshold activities for young adults (18-35 years) suffering from mental health problems. Most of these are NEETs and RNEET. 7 Culture houses' peer-advisorsand two staff members attended to the Learning event. Also a researcher from the university of Helsinki attended to the event and her main task was a evaluate both the project as whole and the created framework. Through attending personnel and youngsters, Sosped foundation got a simple framework that they can use on on their different Culture houses in Finland. FRYSHUSET WORK IN A PROACTIVE CONTEXT Fryshuset focuses its operations primarily on the empowerment of youth, as well as its inclusion in society by providing youth, in particular the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, with opportunities for change. Many of these are RNEETs. From Fryshuset, one trainee, a special teacher and two pupils from Fryshuset's special school attended to the learning event. Special school's teachers got a simple and easy to use tool that they found both innovative, easy to use and modifiable to their pupils's needs. YEU CYPRUS - WORKING ON BOTH REACTIVE AND PROACTIVE CONTEXTS YEU Cyprus is facing similar challenges than Fryshuset and Sosped. The organization is also working actively to integrate more and more refugees from North African countries. From YEU Cyprus, there were 8 persons attending, including one youth coordinator and 7 youth and volunteers. Concept of NEET is not known is Cyprus, so attending persons got familiar with a new concept, they got a framework that they can use to train their volunteers.DEVELOPED FRAMEWORK AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIESDeveloped manual provides a visual presentation about the developmental phases of social inclusion and exclusion. It lists also different safety factors that can hidrance social inclusion and and risk factors than can indicate or accelerate social exclusion. In the end of the framework there is also a list of questions that can be used to discuss with youth. Developed material works as as toolbox for youth professionals and youth and the main goal is to help to discuss about social exclusion and help youngsters to be more aware of their current life situation. Material can be used both individually and together with professinals. Due to great cultural differences, heterogenity of NEETs and limited time ( 4 days), framework isn't completely ready. English and Finnish versions exist already but them are first versions. Material was tested together with extern stakeholders inclusing outreach youth workers, special teachers and mental health workers and all of them agreed that material has potential. Yet, it should me developed further in order to respond better to NEETs needs, at least on national level.Material is available for organizations wanting to test it to to used in future applications."

"Problem gambling and gambling addiction is a serious phenomenon. Finland has some of the highest figures for gambling in Europe. Gambling can be seen in everyday environments in many different ways. Gambling problems affect hundreds of thousands of Finnish people either directly or indirectly. An estimated 124 000 residents (3,3%) in Finland have a gambling problem and nearly 20% has a relative whose gambling is out of control. A recent school survey showed that 7.1% of eighth and ninth graders said they gambled once or twice weekly in Finland. Ireland has the third highest gambling losses per adult, in the world (based on 2016 figures). According to the Department of Health, Ireland has in the region of 30,000 people with gambling problems (aged 15 and over). The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists Faculty Report found that: “an estimated 8 to 10 other people in the gambler’s social network will be seriously affected"". This means that there could be somewhere between 270,000 and 330,000 people affected by problem gambling in Ireland. In Norway, the latest research results are from 2015. A new study and results will be published in 2020. Based on 2015, there are about 730,000 people in, who are affected by gambling harms, either as a gambler, or as a significant other.Sosped Foundation has gained knowledge of problem gambling and developed effective peer support, training and mentoring models since 2008. Pelirajat'on/Limit'less Gambling is Sosped Foundation's flag ship and it has achieved broad coverage in Finland, rapid growth and proven effectiveness. Our next steps are (Together with Spillavhengighet Norge and Problem Gambling Ireland): 1.Create a structure and training for the ”next level” experts by experience, so that we can answer to the need of public health in future2. Provide the operating model for international use.
3. Learn more about the phenomenon globally (including treatment, differences in regimes etc.) 4.Create a structure and training that can be copied in other areas (for example mental health issues, other addictions) so that we have certain type of standard in our field of experts by experience. Sosped Foundation, together with Spillavhengighet Norge and Problem Gambling Ireland are going to be sharing knowledge and best practices, to learn from each other and to develop an international model of ”next level”(gambling-harms) expert by experience. In all three countries, there's a demand for knowledge, new approaches, effective models and concrete tools that support our public health professionals and treatment (expert by experience working side by side with professionals), tools that help organizations and individual experts by experience to influence in society and structure and training for those individuals who have suffered harms (in this case gambling) and want to continue their work of helping others in a bigger scale. There's no tradition of co-operation and co-development in the field of problematic gambling/ gambling addiction in Europe. Different countries have only understood the scope and severity of the problem in the recent years and have started to develop and implement effective support models and services for adult population. Compared to substance abuse, problematic gambling is often forgotten and hard to detect. Innovation of this project comes from the beginning. Idea of this project came from Experts by experience and the need they have witnessed amongst the gamblers and their significant other and in public health, professionals and policymakers. Sosped Foundation has developed different peer-to-peer models and has gained good results in Finland. Peer advisors and experts by experience are trained, supported and the activities are evaluated on a regular basis. An expert by experience is a person who has lived experience on mental health and/or substance abuse challenges or other kinds of life crisis. Experience-based knowledge is needed for developing services, changing attitudes and creating an understanding of challenges which people meet during their lifespan. Good and wide knowledge of Sosped gives us unique possibility to be able to create a whole new training/education, which will answer to the need of public health in the future. The next step is to create the next level training for international use, with our partners from Norway and Ireland. Through exchange of expertise and good practices the project aims to create a high level training, competence and ability of all three organisations to support, educate their target groups, spread the knowledge to society and public health by trained experts by experience and in the end- spread this next level training to other areas, such as mental health issues and other addictions.The target group is people who have suffered problematic gambling or gambling addiction as a gambler or as a significant other and who have recovered from problematic gambling or gambling addiction."

<< Objectives >>The project aims to develop, pilot and demonstrate an open source program that introduces circular economy (model of production and consumption, involving sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling materials and products as long as possible) and maker movement (cultural trend that places value on an individual's ability to be a creator as well as a consumer of things) as a tool that can be used by youth workers to bring wellbeing to youth with mental health conditions.<< Implementation >>Through participatory action based co-design with the target groups we will develop the program, including guidelines, tutorials and training curriculum. Through collaborative pilot testing we will review the practical applicability of the program in a real context and with a group of youths. In the final demonstration and dissemination activity we will challenge the content in various contexts and share the final outcomes in dissemination events.<< Results >>The result is a robust and holistic program centered around circular economy and maker movement, offered in open source and open access ways, that allows youth to address global challenges through local activities. The intention is to enable organizations, youth centers and youth workers working with young people with mental health to implement it in their regular activities with the end goal to bring a sense of achievement and wellbeing to their beneficiaries.