Centre for Resilience & Socio-Emotional Health organises HEARTS local conference

The Erasmus+ HEARTS Project (2023-2025) brought six European institutional partners together for a collaboration dedicated to co-designing and piloting innovative strategies for mental health promotion in higher education, primarily focusing on trauma prevention and support.

The Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health at the University of Malta worked on this project together in collaboration with ISOR-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), CIS-ISCTE-Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (Portugal), UNICA Università Degli Studi di Cagliari (Italy), SCT COREP Consorzio per la Ricerca e l'Educazione Permanente Torino (Italy), and IUHPE (International Union for Health Promotion and Education, France).

As a result of this collaboration, the HEARTS Framework was developed as a tool for mental health promotion in higher education institutions with a particular emphasis on students and staff from minority backgrounds, and the following resources and training material have been published:

• HEARTS Foundation Bricks Report: Understanding Health Promotion for Trauma Support in Higher Education HEARTS.
• HEARTS Activity Handbook: Activities to foster culturally-sensitive and community-based health promotion for trauma support in Higher Education.
• HEARTS Guide: Guide for the Introduction of Culturally Sensitive and Community-based Health Promotion for Trauma Support in Higher Education.

The Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health organised a local conference on 26 November 2025 at the University of Malta as part of the HEARTS project. The local conference provided over 110 participants with information on the project, and participants were also given the opportunity to experience first hand, some of the activities that were developed as part of the HEARTS Framework.

For more information on the HEARTS project and to download these resources please visit the website.