Kick off meeting, 16-17 January 2018, Brussels

On 16-17 January 2018, the project partners met in Brussels for the kick off meeting, where they started planning all the activities to be implemented through the life of the project.

Over the 39 months of the project’s duration (January 2018-March 2021), the partners will collect and systematise the international knowledge on adolescent young carers, the policy frameworks and good practices in existence across Europe. Building on the findings collected, the consortium will develop an innovative framework of primary prevention interventions to be tested and adapted in 6 countries (Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and UK) at different stages of awareness and development of services for adolescent young carers. The country-tailored interventions –co-designed with young carers and relevant stakeholders– will empower adolescent young carers by improving their resilience and coping resources, in order to support their development in the crucial phase that is adolescence, where personal and social identity are forming.

In doing so, ME-WE will contribute to ensuring good mental health for adolescent young carers, which is increasingly recognised as an important driver of economic growth and social development in Europe.

Moreover, it is expected that the Me-We project will also have positive long-term effects on employment and higher education opportunities for adolescent young carers, mitigating the risk of being Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). The Me-We project will also therefore contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy target of reducing the rate of early school leaving to below 10%.