On World Suicide Prevention Day, E-mpowerYouth shares encouraging results from its pilot in the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine, showing how practical prevention programmes can strengthen the protective skills and relationships young people need when facing difficult situations.
Young people’s lives increasingly move between online and offline spaces. Relationships, friendships and identity are now also shaped online, but so too can experiences of pressure, exclusion, harassment, manipulation and gender-based violence. These experiences can affect young people’s emotions, self-esteem and well-being.
The E-mpowerYouth project is working to equip young people, and the adults around them, with practical skills to recognise these risks, respond safely and seek support.
Between May and July 2026, the partners of the project coordinated by ICDI – Labour and Health Social Initiatives -LHSI, NGO Girls (Ukraine), OPORA Foundation (Netherlands), and PRO-FIL Foundation (Poland) – piloted its Toolbox with young people aged 12–18 and parents and caregivers in their countries. Eighteen face-to-face workshops reached 190 participants, while the pilot of the project’s online tools involved 192 participants. The activities explored online harm and violence, coercion and exploitation, consent and boundaries, digital well-being and, importantly, how to respond and where to find help.
From facing problems alone to seeking support
The evaluation found positive changes in knowledge, awareness and young people’s reported sense of agency. Some of the strongest results concerned help-seeking and supporting others.
Among 12–15-year-olds in the Netherlands, for example, the proportion reporting that they knew how to seek help increased from 43% to 93%. In one Polish group, awareness of sources of help increased from 40% to 100%, while the proportion saying they would deal with the problem alone fell from 60% to 10%.
Results among older adolescents were equally encouraging in several pilot groups. In Ukraine, reported knowledge of where and how to seek help increased from 23% to 100%. In one Polish group, the proportion who said they would deal with a difficult online situation alone fell from 70% to zero, while those who would contact a trusted person increased from 50% to 100%.
The pilot also highlighted the crucial role of adults. Across the three countries, caregivers increasingly favoured listening, dialogue and finding solutions together with the child, rather than immediately imposing restrictions or taking control. In Ukraine, caregivers’ reported ability to recognise signs of a child’s distress increased from 35% to 85%.
Why this matters today
On World Suicide Prevention Day, these findings carry a wider message.
E-mpowerYouth is not a suicide-prevention intervention, and its pilot did not measure suicide-related outcomes. But prevention also means strengthening the protective environment around young people before situations escalate: recognising distress and harmful experiences, knowing how to support a friend, having adults who listen without judgement, and knowing where to turn for help instead of struggling alone.
The pilot suggests that these skills can be strengthened. It also showed that young people engage particularly well with realistic situations, interactive exercises and facilitated conversations that connect digital safety with their everyday lives.
Because breaking the silence around difficult experiences can be a small but vital first step towards getting help – online and offline.
