The mental health burden and crisis on the society, especially among the youth, has been extensively researched and the need for intervention programmes is critical as we navigate an increasingly unpredictable world. This symposium will share the story on such intervention programme, that is the EU4Health-funded Icehearts Europe project, which was inspired by the Icehearts Finland model.

Icehearts Europe aims to address several health-related problems that children and youth face in today’s society: (i) approximately 20-25% of youth are suffering from mental health problems in the aftermath of COVID-19  (OECD, 2019) and (ii) the long-lasting trend of insufficient physical activity for 80% of adolescents puts the health and well-being of the children and youth at serious risk (WHO, 2019).

Icehearts has already been identified as an evidence-based and highly successful best practice in Finland(Icehearts Finland, 2024). Icehearts Finland uses team sports as a tool for engaging children alongside social work. The model provides consistent long-term support for vulnerable children. Each team is led by a mentor who supports the selected children at school, after school and at home for twelve years. Children who require special support and who have been recognised as being at risk of social exclusion early on are selected to a team. Children are selected in co-operation with pre-school, school and social service professionals. The child´s caregivers ultimately decide if the child will participate in the team activities and accept the support offered.

Icehearts Europe lays the foundations for the Icehearts methodology to be further streamlined and translated through international knowledge exchanges, thereby adapting it to nineteen new countries and their cultural contexts, with in-depth piloting in five countries across Europe. In Icehearts Europe there is a drive to improve mental health and well-being for disadvantaged youth in Europe through a pan- European initiative based on the Finnish Icehearts model. The strategic objectives are as follows: (a) To build a model and tools for European implementation of Icehearts; (b) To build capacity in partner and stakeholder organisations to deploy Icehearts; (c) To pilot the developed Icehearts model in five European countries and (d) To enhance European awareness about Icehearts and engage fourteen more countries and organisations in deployment and scale-out.

The aim of this symposium is to interrogate the Icehearts Europe project showing how a multisectoral, multidisciplinary ecosystem translated Icehearts from one country (Finland) to five pilot countries. Furthermore, it will assert that Icehearts Europe is uniquely positioned to chart a new way forward in how to address the intersections of physical activity, mental health (Sport for Development Coalition, 2022)  and physical health using a range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies to deliver benefits in all of these fields. Overall, it is hoped that this symposium will spur radical new ways of understanding and researching the wellbeing of children and young people in sport, exercise and physical education contexts across a diverse range of cultural settings and communities in Europe.

Icehearts Finland (2024). Icehearts Finland. See: https://www.icehearts.fi/brief-in-english/ OECD (2019). Supporting Young People’s Mental Health through the Covid-19 crisis. Retrieved on 1st February 2020 from: https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/supporting-young-people-s-mental-health-through-the-covid-19-crisis-84e143e5/ Sport for Development Coalition (2022). Moving for Mental Health: How physical activity, sport and sport for development can transform lives after Covid-19. Retrieved on 31st January 2022from:https://sportfordevelopmentcoalition.org/sites/default/files/file/23817%20Sport%20for%20Development%20Coalition%20Mental%20Health%20& %20Wellbeing%20Report_Accessible_FINAL.pdf WHO (2019). New WHO-led study says majority of adolescents worldwide are not sufficiently physically active putting their current and future health at risk. Retrieved on 22 November 2019 from: https://www.who.int/news/item/22-11-2019-new-who-led-study-says-majority-of-adolescents-worldwide-are-not-sufficiently-physically-active- putting-their-current-and-future-health-at-risk