Cyprus PA
The Cypriot participants met 10 days before the beginning of the Youth Exchange, on the 15th of October 2024, in order to conduct research on 4 major themes, relating to art and mental health in the context of Cyprus.
Months before this however, the cypriot participants made 3 logos as part of the logo contest for the Youth Exchange and actually, one of them won.
During the Cypriot participant's meeting, research was conducted on the below art clubs
"MBAT4SENIORS" - A project to give adult educators, who work with seniors, comprehensive materials on using MBAT to help improve the mental health of people aged 65 and older during the COVID-19 pandemic. MBAT stands for Mindful-Based Art Therapy, and as the name suggests, the club focuses to create a supportive community where seniors can connect, express themselves, and improve their mental health through the transformative power of the arts.
Nefeles Art Therapy - An art therapy club focusing on offering services that use art to aid people, particularly children, in expressing emotions and improving their mental health. In the research, you can see a recent story, where there were specific art therapy classes for making women with cancer feel more powerful.
Mandala - a private professional center that offers workshops, focused on mental health. As Nefeles, this center also works with vulnerable groups such as children or people with disabilities.
Anastasiou Crafts - Ran by couple Marios and Yiota Anastasiou, this club offers workshops and therapy sessions focused on mental health. While these initiatives work with any age, they particularly focus on children to foster connection and healing.
Notably, our participant Stefani Anastasiou is the daughter of the aforementioned Marios and Yiota Anastasiou, and we are particularly proud to have her in this project.
The research conducted was turned into a document covering the above, as well as images and screenshots of their social media platforms.
In turn, and to be able to present the above in a better visual manner to the other participants who are coming to the project, our Cypriot participants turned the research into 4 posters, which you can find below. These posters will be shown during the Youth Exchange as part of a "Reality in our countries" activity, so all participants find out the realities of each other's national groups.
