Empowering Young Patients (EYP) is a European pilot project funded by the CERV – Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (Call CERV–2024 CHILD), launched in January 2025 with the aim of ensuring the right to participation for hospitalized children.
The initiative was created to promote the well-being, socialization, and inclusion of minors experiencing prolonged hospital stays, while also enhancing the role of the educational and healthcare community.
Project Objectives
The project aims to:
- Collect and share best practices at both local and European levels regarding the participation of hospitalized children.
- Provide opportunities for socialization, education, and active citizenship to minors in long-term care wards, improving their well-being and sense of belonging.
- Train educators, teachers, volunteers, and healthcare professionals to foster inclusion and participation of children in hospitals.
- Involve external students and teachers to develop transversal skills and raise awareness about the challenges faced by hospitalized peers.
- Create a Community of Practice bringing together organizations, families, professionals, and institutions to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.
The direct beneficiaries are children and young people aged 7 to 17 receiving care in long-term hospital wards, along with teachers, educators, volunteers, families, and healthcare staff involved in training activities, workshops, and discussion moments.
The main activities take place in Rome, with the support of the Policlinico Gemelli, but the project also includes events and meetings in Milan, Lecce, and online, thanks to collaboration with European partners that ensure the exchange of good practices and transnational institutional dialogue.
Direct beneficiaries
The direct beneficiaries are children and young people aged 7 to 17 receiving care in long-term hospital wards, along with teachers, educators, volunteers, families, and healthcare staff involved in training activities, workshops, and discussion moments.
Locations
The main activities take place in Rome, with the support of the Policlinico Gemelli, but the project also includes events and meetings in Milan, Lecce, and online, thanks to collaboration with European partners that ensure the exchange of good practices and transnational institutional dialogue.
Activities
The approach of Empowering Young Patients reflects the CERV vision: promoting an inclusive democracy in which every child is recognized as an active subject, capable of contributing to their own well-being and to that of the community.
For this reason, children are not merely recipients of actions, but co-protagonists of project and training pathways.
Over the two-year project, planned activities include:
- Needs analysis and collection of best practices (January–June 2025)
- Roundtables and multi-stakeholder meetings (July–November 2025)
- Open Days and awareness campaigns (Autumn 2025)
- Creation of the Community of Practice (March 2025–June 2026)
- Co-design of the “Charter of Hospitalized Children” (December 2025–Autumn 2026
- Policy Lab and final conference in Rome (second half of 2026)
- Training programmes for teachers, volunteers, and healthcare professionals (November 2025–June 2026)
These activities aim to build a stable and interdisciplinary network connecting hospitals, schools, families, and institutions, strengthening active participation and citizenship of children in hospital as an essential component of care.
EYP goes beyond improving the quality of life of hospitalized children: it proposes a paradigm shift—from assistance to participation, from care to protagonism, from the individual to the network.
In this sense, the project embodies the European vision of a society that places children’s rights and dignity at the center of its policies and actions.
Explore the activities bringing the EYP project to life
EYP is an initiative carried out in partnership with JAI, ActionAid, Project School, and Hope, in collaboration with the Policlinico Gemelli Hospital Foundation in Rome.
It is funded by the European Commission through the CERV Programme (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme).
Partners
In collaboration with
Toolkit
The EYP Toolkit gathers methodologies, practices, and learning resources developed throughout the project, including:
- Participatory approaches tested in hospitals and schools
- Educational and creative methodologies (art, music, co-design)
- Guidelines emerging from interviews, focus groups, and community labs
- Training materials from workshops and the Officine Buone Academy
The Toolkit is designed to support professionals, educators, and volunteers working with hospitalized children.
COMING SOON