Support youth's mental health-social reintegration

Dear Friends at GlobalGiving,

We would like to begin by thanking our friends at GlobalGiving for the support you have given to Children Change Colombia over the years. This platform and the different donors that are involved have been essential; your backing has  had a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of children, young people and community members throughout Colombia. Your generous support is helping keep at risk-children safe from the dangers in their communities, and is allowing them to develop important life skills and strengthen their capacities in order to build positive futures for themselves.

Through this report, we want to update you on our crucial project: "Youth Reintregration Into Society: A Community-Based Approach Towards Mental Health." This project provides a novel, community-based, narrative approach to psychosocial care, trauma and reintegration. It aims to help children and young people (CYP) at risk of joining gangs, and victims of forced recruitment by armed groups, to gain access to the resources and skills they need to deal with a variety of traumatic situations and stigmas. The purpose of this project is for CYP to enhance positive relationships within their communities and change situations of vulnerability and criminality through the use of narratives of resilience, thus creating protective and healing environments.

For the period between June 15th 2022 to 30th June 2023, we witnessed amazing results: 

• Although the estimated number of children and young people who would benefit from the project during its first year of development was 269, the actual number of CYP that benefited directly from it over the course of the project was 471. This represents an increase of 75% of CYP who benefited.

• From this total amount, 421 were the beneficiaries from Bogotá: 131 CYP were direct beneficiaries (victims of forced recruitment or at risk), 50 CYP were direct beneficiaries from Arcadia, 103 from Semillas de Amor and 137 from Junior Masculino Bogotá. In the case of Villavicencio, 23 CYP benefited from the project. In Restrepo, 27 CYP participated as well.

The project was highly successful and effective. To demonstrate this, we'd like to highlight the following:

• 80% of the young participants are aware of the changes in their narratives regarding the period of criminal activities or forced recruitment: At the end of this first year of project implementation, the CYP were able to actively participate in the activities proposed to strengthen the skills and abilities they need to face challenges, difficulties and risks in their every-day life. Within the process, healthy bonds, self-care, and relationships were strengthened, which are skills that promote protective environments and enhance their emotional well-being and mental health.

• 75% of the young participants strengthen their positive leadership abilities: From the 107 children and adolescents at risk who participated in the training and strengthening process, 72% managed to identify aspects of themselves, from their self-esteem, self-image, emotional self-knowledge in order to enhance their positive leadership skills. The CYP could identify their occupational projections, aspirations and life project desires.

• 70% of CYP that participated in the program improved their mental health and wellbeing: The main goal of this indicator was to conduct an international certified survey for all the participants to monitor the project performance in terms of mental health (the tool is WHO-5 (a survey that indicates a level of well-being index).

• Of the 70 children and adolescents who took the survey, 99% (33 from Meta and 37 from Bogotá) stated that they enhanced their well-being, showing that through the care, training and strengthening processes they could develop skills and capacities for their life.

Main activities:

• "The dreams that I sow today”: The aim of this session was for the CYP to remember the dreams and desires they had when they were children. They could express their feelings through artistic creations. Their artistic results were meant to be a symbol of containment and a metaphorical way to say that they are planning to achieve those dreams, desires and projections that they want for their lives and where they can feel welcomed and special.

• "Discovering what I feel and how I feel it": The sessions aimed to guide the CYP on how to express emotions and the impact the way they express them can have. The general learning was: the way I manage and express what I feel creates an impact on others. In this way, new forms of leadership can be formed, strengthening the participants self-esteem and promoting protective and safe environments.

• “Messages from the heart”: In the session the staff proposed and analysed some texts that talked about life essential skills in terms of emotions and communication with others. The participants connected with their hearts and explored new narratives, identifying the aspects that they feel they need to work on and might have a hard time processing. The staff have noticed that is very common that CYP victims of forced recruitment and at risk have a hard time when expressing or communicating their emotions, they feel that they cannot be vulnerable with anyone. They also feel in danger and consider there are no relationships of trust that can allow them to be vulnerable. The session ended by talking about recognising that life and each person's path is sacred. They also concluded that is very important to continue working on recognising themselves and that vulnerability is essential to be able to heal.

We are so proud of all the work we have done, the children we have supported, and the amazing community we have built in the UK, Colombia, and now across the world with GlobalGiving!

Thank you again for your ongoing support!