The Trashycle project was born during a creative brainstorming by Sosped (FL), TransfoLAB (ES) and CoLab House (GR), three organizations from the Mental Health sector, the Creative sector and the Youth Work sector, who decided to explore the positive effects of circular economy and the maker movement on the mental health of the youth.

During this project, we will initially co-design a pilot program of capacity building and problem-solving activities for the youth, aiming to alleviate mental health and exclusion risks through methods that involve circular, social, participatory economy and the maker movement.

Following this stage, the pilot program will run with the involvement of the youth beneficiaries from Culture House Virta in Tampere (Finland), to test the process developed and verify that it offers education on the emerging topics mentioned above, while it also stimulates and inspires engagement in collaborative activities that increase confidence in making a social impact.

Finally, the program will be applied by a number of organizations in different settings and locations, with the intention to receive valuable feedback, revise our methodology and produce an effective, robust, and flexible program.

As our ultimate purpose is to allow every interested organization to implement the final comprehensive and robust program, we will create open source tutorials and guidelines that will be disseminated online and through dissemination events. This way, youth organizations will be able to inspire and guide the young people to actively participate in their societies by working on global challenges, such as climate change, through local collaborative activities based on creativity, circular economy and the maker movement.

We are convinced that the mental health and wellbeing of the participants will be substantially improved, while they will also gain useful knowledge in sustainable design, collaborative production and important green skills. Their new skills can also be used for future (self)employment opportunities, while the youth workers that will apply the developed program will be able to introduce innovative, creative and quality activities in their organizations, opening the way to the recognition of youth work.

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