Promoting mental health and wellbeing among young people through yoga
The Hippocampus project was funded by the Erasmus + programme as part of the Key Action 2 – Cooperation and Innovation for good practices; Strategic partnerships for youth. The aim of the HIPPOCAMPUS project was to develop and implement an appropriate yoga-based approach to bring the benefits of yoga to young people in situations of disadvantage. Various aspects of innovation were developed through the project, such as creating inclusion for disadvantaged youth, action in varied youth environments, a holistic approach to all the organisations involved and the creation of an app to sustain the benefits of the study and transfer the practice to our homes.
The whole study orbiting around Hippocampus was implemented by The Grial Research Group of the University of Salamanca (Spain), YEU International (Belgium), Teen Yoga Foundation (UK), IES Venancio Blanco (Spain), Oxfam Italy (Italy) and NTNU (Norway). These organisations were the key actors in testing out new methodologies for the wellbeing of young people in education and employment. Yoga helped young people in many ways, whether it was to stay in good physical or mental shape.
One of the outcomes of the project was the Yuva Yoga mobile phone application, which you can download today to practice yoga wherever you want and stay in great shape all throughout your exhausting working days.