Best practices catalogue, Girl's Centre, Serbia

The project Girl's Centre is a socio-educational program aimed at girls and young women in the territory of the city of Novi Sad. The overall goal of the project was to dedicate greater attention to the prevention and promotion of mental health among youth, especially girls and young women in Novi Sad, through individual counselling and group work (holding thematic workshops). The specific objectives of the programme:

·         Contribute to the prevention and promotion of mental health for girls through holding thematic workshops on mental health topics.

·         Enhance the mental health of girls through individual psychological counselling for youth dealing with issues of growing up.

What do you think are the key elements or principles that make your practice successful? How do you ensure it remains relevant and impactful for youth?

The first key element is the fact that the initiative is based on an assessment of needs, specifically a study on youth mental health conducted by our organization. In addition, other sources of information about the needs of young people in the community were used in planning the intervention. Finally, the intervention is also based on our organization's experience from direct work with girls.

The second element is that activities were planned in collaboration with and with the participation of youth. The psychologists who worked with the participants are also young people who already have professional experience and are close to the target group.

As for relevance and impact, there is no doubt that the practice we developed remains relevant. Since we conducted a project evaluation, we have feedback from users as well as parents of younger girls, which shows that this project is highly needed and that the demand for such interventions is growing. Additionally, the age range of youth and children is decreasing, and increasingly younger girls are in need of support.

What were some of the biggest challenges that were faced in developing, running, or engaging youth with this practice? How did you overcome them?

We did not face significant challenges except for securing funds to implement the activities. The project was funded in two cycles by the local government, with very modest resources. In communication with other organizations providing similar services, we learned that there is some hesitancy among youth regarding group activities, as they prefer individual work. However, we believed that group activities in the form of workshops strengthen girls' capacities for developing healthy social relationships and that a combination of group (workshops) and individual work (psychological counseling) yields the best results. Also, when announcing workshop participation opportunities, we used terms and formulations that emphasized life skills rather than the term "mental health," which still carries some stigma in our community.