The Faculty of Education and Psychology of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (FEP-UCP) and its Research Centre for Human Development (CEDH) are partners in the “vivaMente: Youth for Mental Health” competition, an initiative promoted by “ManifestaMente” that challenges young people aged 14 to 19 to develop mental health promotion projects within their schools and communities.

Organised by the non-profit association “ManifestaMente”, the competition invites young people from schools and educational organisations across Portugal to design and implement mental health promotion projects, taking an active role in raising awareness of this important issue.

The initiative is open to teams of 10 to 40 members, which may consist of students from Years 9, 10, 11 or 12, or groups of young people aged between 14 and 19. Each team must be supported by a teacher responsible for the application or by a healthcare professional with expertise in mental health.

Applications are open until 1 December 2026 and may be submitted via the “ManifestaMente” website, where further information and the competition regulations are also available.

Assessing the competition’s impact through the Youth Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire

FEP-UCP and CEDH’s involvement in the initiative also includes supporting the evaluation of the competition’s impact through a protocol established with “ManifestaMente”.

As part of this collaboration, ManifestaMente’s team will use the Youth Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire (LSMq-SV), developed within the international project "Expanding Mental Health Literacy", coordinated by CEDH researchers Luísa Campos and Pedro Dias.

The questionnaire assesses knowledge related to mental health and will be used to gather information on the impact of young people’s participation in the training activities and projects developed as part of the competition.

For more information about the “vivaMente: Youth for Mental Health” competition, please visit the “ManifestaMente” website.