The YES Network of Active Schools: A Year of Action for Adolescent Mental Wellbeing

image003

The Network of Active Schools for Adolescent Mental Wellbeing was a core pillar of CAMHI's YES Youth Engagement Scheme, established after the first three years of the Adolescent Advisory Groups and the rollout of dialogue-based activities in schools across Greece.

Specifically, during the 2025-2026 school year, 100 secondary schools nationwide (48 lower secondary schools, 26 general upper secondary schools, 5 music schools, 10 vocational schools, 4 special education schools, 2 special vocational training centers, and 5 evening lower and upper secondary schools) answered CAMHI's call and joined the Network of Active Schools, running a series of dialogue-based activities on adolescent mental wellbeing and submitting feedback forms with relevant data. According to these forms, 6,300 students took part in dialogue sessions held at their schools using the YES Programme's materials. Of the schools that ran these sessions, 60 reported holding between 4 and 7 consecutive sessions over the course of the school year, reaching a total of 4,111 students.

Here, you can view a map of last year's Active Schools along with a detailed list of participating schools.

The criteria for joining the Network of Active Schools for Student Mental Wellbeing were as follows:

  • A formal commitment from each school's teaching staff, through a decision by the teachers' council, to organize 7 two-hour "dialogue sessions" over the course of the year, across all sections of at least one grade level (or more), within the regular school timetable and, where relevant, integrated with various subjects, skills workshops, active citizenship initiatives, or school self-evaluation action plans.
  • Informing parents and the wider school community, using and adapting the sample letter templates provided.
  • Each school designating at least 3 teachers to organize these sessions, drawing on the "Dialogue Activities for Adolescent Mental Wellbeing" and "Group Games" manuals, as well as other related materials.
  • At least one teacher-representative from each school attending CAMHI's "Mental Health Literacy for Educators" training programme, or another related training programme.

The YES program is implemented in partnership with the Child Mind Institute, with exclusive support from Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF Global Health Initiative (GHI).