CHAT-YOUTH - Crisis Help and Assistance for youth during challenging Times (2023-2026)

Youth undergo personal and external crises in the current time of changes. Young people seek support and mental help online. There are different kinds of online counselling chat services (OCCS) that aim to support the well-being of young people. CHAT-YOUTH will produce information and facilitate stakeholders to information exchange and ethical reflection to improve the quality of starting and ongoing non-profit OCCS and to capacitate youth work in Europe.

The objective is to collect and analyse data about characteristics and good practices of OCCS that aim to support youth (<30) to overcome crisis with human help. In-depth analyses of topics and dialogues will be conducted. The research research will be shared and disseminated through participatory activities with European stakeholders and further developed into practical tools. The aim is to facilitate networking that will strengthen the links between research, practice and policy.

CHAT-YOUTH will produce knowledge about OCCS that will help to develop and evaluate ongoing and start new OCCS. A special focus will be on vulnerable groups, including youth from Ukraine. Networking will bring European stakeholders together to share experiences and to discuss quality as well as ethical issues, also after the end of the project.

Dissemination aims to contribute to improving OCCS, and eventually support youth in need as well as youth work, research and policy making.

CHAT-YOUTH is arranging a thematic working group to the XXII Annual Conference of Youth Studies 8–9th November 2023 in Helsinki, Finland. Link to our working group Do chat services for youth build hope? Welcome!

Funding and partners

ERASMUS+ KA220-YOU - Cooperation partnerships in youth.

Alexis Dewaele and Lien Goossens, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
Maria Cabello Salmerón, La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Katalin Felvinczi and Zsuza Kalo, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary