Project Promoting psychosocial well-being and skills in adolescents

Prepared By Licensada Salomé Rosales León

GRACE 2020
Department: Mental Health Coordination
Target: Migrant Adolescents 12-17 years of age

Diagnosis
Within the framework of the Grace Foundation's mental health program, interviews were
conducted with the parents of migrant families to inquire about the needs of their families,
specifically regarding the psychosocial well-being of their children.
During the investigation, families in vulnerable situations were identified. These family’s
adolescents are not in school and/or exhibit a disruptive emotional and behavioral repertoire
that has been fostered by situations of xenophobia or by confinement and social limitations to
which they have been subjected during COVID 19 isolation.
In this sense, the need to create spaces for learning, socialization and affective
expression is proposed, which allows the adolescent population to mitigate the negative
emotional effects of discrimination and social isolation, especially during the next vacation
period, considering the emotional support groups as an adequate space to develop the
approach and the promotion of psychosocial well-being that this population deserves.

Justification
Thousands of individuals are affected economically and psychosocially by the migratory
processes to which families are subjected to in search of a better quality of life. This generates
various conditions of vulnerability that on many occasions have been aggravated by the
consequences of the pandemic, causing challenging situations such as illness, isolation, fear,
stress, and loss of livelihoods, which can affect all members of the nuclear family.
Specifically, the problems of adolescents and young people (boredom, apathy, academic
difficulty, drug use, violence, alterations in body image, interpersonal and communication
problems, difficulties in controlling emotions such as anger, anxiety, sadness and jealousy) are
rarely addressed in the school, medical or community setting, with very little intervention in the
area of mental health within the adolescent population.
Likewise, with the closure of schools, mobility limitations and social distancing imposed
due to the pandemic, the harmful effects associated with isolation are fostered, especially in the
child-adolescent stage, generating states of irritability, anxiety and depression.
That is why this project seeks to generate a response to the need to generate spaces
where adolescents can be taught strategies to promote a healthy adaptation to the environment,
through the creation of emotional support groups that allow them to have open dialogue, reflect
and perform exercises to overcome obstacles, solve emotional difficulties and stimulate the
personal development of the participants.

Within the legal scope, this project is framed in articles 44 and 45 of the Constitution of
the Republic of Ecuador, which mention:

"Art. 44.- The State, society and the family will promote as a priority the integral
development of girls, boys and adolescents, and will ensure the full exercise of
their rights; The principle of your best interests will be attended to and your rights
will prevail over those of other people. Girls, boys and adolescents will have the
right to their integral development, understood as a process of growth,
 maturation and deployment of their intellect and their capacities, potentialities
and aspirations, in a family, school, social and community environment of
affectivity and security. This environment will allow the satisfaction of their social,
affective-emotional and cultural needs, with the support of national and local
intersectoral policies."

Art. 45.- “Girls, boys and adolescents shall enjoy the common rights of the
human being, in addition to those specific to their age. The State will recognize
and guarantee life, including care and protection from conception. Girls, boys and
adolescents have the right to physical and mental integrity; to your identity, name
and citizenship; to integral health and nutrition; to education and culture, to sports
and recreation; to social security; to have a family and enjoy family and
community coexistence; to social participation; respect for their freedom and
dignity; to be consulted on matters that affect them; to educate themselves as a
priority in their language and in the cultural contexts of their peoples and
nationalities; and to receive information about their absent parents or relatives,
unless it would be detrimental to their well-being "

With the implementation of this project it is sought to promote the psychosocial well-being of
adolescents, strengthening their capacities through communication, creativity, awareness,
socialization, etc. With this you can strengthen companionship, friendship and a healthy and
productive enjoyment of your free time.

General objectives:
• Create spaces for exchange and trust to provide resources to adolescents that facilitate
their personal development, emotional well-being and a healthy adaptation to the
environment.
• Train adolescents in skills of interest to them through workshops and courses that
provide useful knowledge while making productive use of their free time.

Specific objectives:
• Get to know yourself, understand yourself better and foster a realistic and positive view
of yourself and your possibilities.
• Foster empathy to better know, understand and accept others and themselves.
• Help understand different perspectives of a problem or conflict and improve skills to deal
with interpersonal conflicts.
• Recognize the values of the family, the environment and themselves.
• Provide tools to strengthen their emotional intelligence and resilience.

Methodology:
To develop this project, a participatory methodology is implemented, where a diagnostic
phase was initially carried out and it was intended to convene focus groups to investigate the
needs of the adolescent population. However, there was no success in the two calls made.
For this reason, a simple questionnaire is generated online, on the survey monkey
platform, with closed answers where the availability to participate is investigated, which is
provided by telephone to refugee adolescents who are in the GRACE database .
In this questionnaire, the choice between different complementary activities (English,
Yoga, Mindfulness, Writing, Fitness and Toy Construction) is offered as an incentive, and
workshops on the activity that are most preferred by adolescents will be facilitated. This is in
order to promote the productive use of their free time while creating space and time to carry out
psychotherapeutic group support sessions.
Weekly sessions will be held using a participatory methodology, holding two-hour
meetings, with a limited number of subjects (5-7) due to congregation restrictions due to the risk
of contagion of COVID19. There, in the first hour the workshop of the chosen activity will be
facilitated and the other will proceed with the emotional support group.
The topics to be worked on in each session will be generated based on the needs and
requirements of the participants, ensuring that communication is multidirectional, that
adolescents are involved in their own learning process from an active and creative role,
facilitating spaces for reflection, where the experience will be used as an educational medium in
itself.

Activities to execute:

Description of the Expected results Personnel in Means of

activity charge verification

Identification of 100% Inclusion of Migrant Administrative staff Database

possible participating Adolescents and Mental Health collected
actors in the GRACE Coordinator
database

Creation and 100% Completed Volunteers and Links and data

socialization of online questionnaires Mental Health reporting of the
survey to know Coordinator online platform
availability of
participation

Call for participants 100% participation of the Mental health Database

through digital means adolescent population coordinator registration
using the data
provided in the survey

Facilitation of 100% promotion of Mental health Planning record of

emotional support psychosocial well-being coordinator and activities that are
groups and English and extracurricular skills of volunteers considered
classes held weekly the adolescent population consistent

Means
Humans
• Participating adolescent population
• Psychologist
• Volunteers
Materials:
• Large and adequate physical space
• Stationery materials for the reproduction of activity sheets
• Furniture and office supplies
• Food to offer a small snack at each session