CyberHealthY: Europe's answer to the digital mental health crisis among young people
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CyberHealthY held its first in-person consortium meeting in Brussels and officially launched a pan-European response to the digital mental health crisis.
CyberHealthY held its first in-person consortium meeting in Brussels and officially launched a pan-European response to the digital mental health crisis.
Six partner organisations unite to train 30 youth workers as Cyberanimators across five European countries.
Open, free, and multilingual: all project outputs designed to reach as many young people as possible.
Thursday, 28 May 2026. Brussels.
CyberHealthY an Erasmus+ project training youth workers to protect young people's mental health in digital spaces, held its first in-person consortium meeting on Monday at Passa Porta Bookshop in Brussels, the International House of Literature in Brussels — a multilingual meeting place in the heart of the city and home to one of the largest literary festivals in Europe. A fitting venue for a project built around connection, community, and the power of bringing people together.
The gathering brought together all six partner organisations for the official launch of the project: Volonteurope (Belgium, coordinator), DREAMY Association (Italy), Action Synergy SA (Greece), FINNOVA Foundation (Belgium), Fundacja Cooperacja (Poland), and Cerebro Corazón (Spain).
A NEW APPROACH TO YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH IN EUROPE
Across Europe, young people face growing mental health risks in digital spaces: cyberbullying, social isolation, digital overload, and disinformation. According to a 2025 report by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, one in seven young people under the age of 20 in Europe lives with a mental health condition.
Youth workers will support young people's personal, social, and educational development outside formal systems, and are uniquely positioned to respond to this challenge. Yet until now they have lacked structured, evidence-based tools to intervene effectively in digital environments. Through a specialised training programme, CyberHealthY equips them to do exactly that, through the creation and facilitation of cybercommunities: safe, supportive digital spaces designed to foster authentic connection and digital wellbeing.
Funded by the Erasmus+ programme with a budget of €250,000 over 24 months (January 2026 to December 2027), the project trains 30 youth workers across five countries as Cyberanimators. Rooted in the experience of EDCyber, a validated predecessor initiative, CyberHealthY scales a proven approach to digital mental health facilitation through Cyberanimation across Europe.
THE BRUSSELS LAUNCH: TURNING A SHARED VISION INTO REALITY
A partners' dinner the evening before set the tone: collaborative, energised, and grounded in shared urgency. The following day, each partner presented their organisation before DREAMY introduced the Cyberanimation methodology and a full overview of the project's structure and objectives. FINNOVA presented the brand guidelines, logo, and communication plan, covering podcasts, newsletters, social media, and awareness sessions across all five countries.
Volonteurope led the session on project governance, establishing the management structures and reporting frameworks that will coordinate six organisations over 24 months. The day closed with the research framework: each partner country will conduct desk and field research to map young people's digital mental health needs, feeding into a shared European analysis that will shape the Cyberanimator training and the national cybercommunities.
WHAT MAKES CYBERHEALTHY DIFFERENT: CYBERANIMATION AND DIGITAL WELLBEING
At the core of CyberHealthY is the Cyberanimation methodology, which applies community animation principles to digital spaces. The Cyberanimator is not a therapist or counsellor, but a facilitator and mediator: someone who creates the conditions for young people to connect authentically and navigate digital spaces safely. It is a preventive, awareness-based approach that recognises mental health as inseparable from the environments in which young people live.
Once trained, Cyberanimators will establish five national cybercommunities on the CyberMentalHub, a free, open, and multilingual platform connecting communities across Belgium, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Spain, engaging at least 75 young people. Key outputs, including the CyberHealthY Handbook, training modules, and the CyberMentalHub platform, will be released as Open Educational Resources under Creative Commons licences, free for any organisation to reuse and adapt.
As Piotr, Secretary General of Volonteurope and project lead, put it: "There is no health without mental health."
CyberHealthY (project number KA220-YOU-AE68DBA5) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The consortium brings together six organisations: Volonteurope (Belgium, coordinator), DREAMY Association (Italy), Action Synergy SA (Greece), FINNOVA Foundation (Belgium), Fundacja Cooperacja (Poland), and Cerebro Corazón (Spain).
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