Child & Youth Activities that Promote Mental Health and Well-being

International Medical Corps designs and implements age-appropriate programs to address identified needs. We design projects for children and youth to build key life skills for those who are coping with difficult situations, helping them to develop friendships and encouraging them to engage in their communities. In addition to providing group activities for well-being, we provide individual services for children in need of more intensive support, including counseling and case management to address a range of protection and well-being concerns.

We work with local partners to assist children and their families by providing safe spaces and well-being activities across different settings, including camps, urban and remote areas. In our youth empowerment program, community projects are designed and carried out by young people themselves, enabling them to learn important skills and forge new relationships with others in the process.

Adolescence is a critical phase in life for achieving human potential. It sets the foundation for later adult life and well-being. It is a time of significant change, when individuals transition from their family of origin to a family of their own, begin to engage in employment and shape their identity. Globally, it is shown that mental disorders are the largest contributor to the burden of disease in young people ages 10–24. Across all countries, suicide has overtaken maternal mortality as the top cause of death for adolescent girls, and is the third-leading cause of death for adolescent boys. This indicates a significant public health concern. Adolescents are often a neglected group; health providers sometimes feel less well trained to work with adolescents and are influenced by social stigma related to adolescents seeking services for sensitive issues, such as sexual and reproductive health.

Our Response

The people we help have often been exposed, or are at risk of being exposed, to conflict, displacement and protection concerns such as child marriage, family separation and child labor. Our community-based programs for children and youth provide psychosocial support, promote social connections and learning through recreational and educational activities, and foster overall well-being, protection and healthy development. We provide programming in safe and accessible spaces, facilitated by trained staff who are able to identify and refer youth and family members who may be in need of more specialized services. Our best practices for community-based safe spaces for children and youth include cross-sector collaboration between our Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and Child Protection teams, to ensure that programming integrates key MHPSS and protection components.

Highlights & Resources

International Medical Corps’ MHPSS and Child Protection teams have created programming to specifically address mental health, psychosocial and protection needs of children and youth in humanitarian settings. We have developed and implement an evidence-based youth empowerment program (YEP) that helps vulnerable youth ages 12–18 to develop skills that promote well-being, empowerment, protection and resilience, with a focus on building confidence, resources and social/community cohesion. Through a life-skills curriculum, YEP uses a variety of media—including artistic and music activities—teaching and practicing basic coping mechanisms, as well as practical engagement with the community through a community-service project. A previous review of three years of YEP in Jordan showed that, after completing YEP, participants demonstrated significant improvements in social skills, relationships with parents and community connectedness, along with significant reductions in depression, anxiety and negative feelings. Read more about YEP in Jordan.

We developed International Medical Corps Operational Guidance on Providing MHPSS for Children in Humanitarian Settings, Including Advanced Mental Health Care to help staff and partners across emergency, conflict and post-conflict humanitarian settings engage in supportive, nurturing environments that optimize children’s mental health, well-being and protection.