Ocell de Foc Badalona, 14.12.2023

In the fourth day of our Training Course “Equality in Network”, the 14th of december of 2023, we had a session dedicated to the Ocell de Foc, that occurred between half past eleven a.m. and half past one p.m. and took place in Badalona. The session was led by two of the former workers of the program and our group sat in a circle with them. In the beggining we had the opportunity to present ourselves by talking a little bit about our organizations and countries. After our presentation, the two leaders started to introduce us Ocell de Foc and particularly its objectives, approach, partnerships and main activities. Ocell de Foc is a program driven by the General Directorate of Social and Solidarity Economy, the Third Sector and the Cooperatives of the Department of Business and Labor of the Generalitat of Catalonia, that has the aim of promoting mental health among young people. The program is oriented for youngsters between 16 and 30 years old, and especially those who suffer from mental health problems, and has the intention of accompanying them towards their autonomy and improvement of their quality of life. The two leaders explained in a very clear way the diversity of activities they do and reflected on how they have been developing their work through them. The activities can be distinguish in three fundamental cathegories: coaching, sensitization and awareness, and training and labour integration. This cathegories include a big amount of activities that touch different topics and methodologies(although all related with mental health). From all of them, it is important to highlight those conected with the issues of emotional management, affective and sexual relationships, gender and mental illness stereotypes or entrepreneurship and professional advice. In the second part of the session our group had the possibility of ask some questions about the program and we had a little discussion. The discussion was mainly about about the profile of the young people that participate in the program and about the main challenges and potentialities of their work. The discussion was also focused particularly on one specific activity they do – the sessions they develop in secondary schools – and on how do they manage their relation with schools. The session was very interesting and useful in the context of this Training Course. Through the explanations of the two leaders we had the opportunity to get to know a good example of a social project targeted to young people that uses education to promote information, awareness and advice regarding mental health.