II Youth Forum takes place at Bahiana

“The Youth Forum is part of the implementation process of the Youth Care Center (CAJU). It is a stage in which we invite youth to dialogue with us, since our goal is to have these youth represented at this event, in order to know what they think and feel in relation to the seven themes listed, ranging from Sexuality and Gender to Consumption of Psychoactive Substances”, reports the coordinator of CAJU, professor of the Psychology course at Bahiana, Maria Beatriz, at the II Youth Forum, held last Friday, November 6, at the Cabula Academic Unit, from Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública.

According to Prof. Maria Beatriz, the themes “Sexuality and Gender”, “Religiosity”, “Friendship”, “Right to the City”, “Culture”, “Solidarity Network” and “Work and School” are at the forefront of the discussion of contemporaneity and the proposal of CAJU is precisely to understand the relationship of these themes with mental health, bringing the speech of youth in the inspirations of the actions promoted by the center. 

The Youth Care Center (CAJU) is an initiative of Bahiana which helps young people aged 15 to 29, promoting mental health in conjunction with public policies and social movements aimed at youth.

The forum brought together students and teachers from the Bahiana, in addition to members of the CAJU partner collectives, including Cipó, Adolescer com Arte, Bahianescer and the young apprentices of Bahiana. During the program, an exhibition of posters by students from the Bahiana participants of Life Cycle Development 4 (DCV4) who did field work visiting six youth collectives working with art, poetry, culture and social mobilization. The purpose of the visits was to relate the work of these groups with the contents seen in DCV4.

The activities also comprised work groups in which the themes worked on by students from the Bahiana and alumni, trained and in-training psychologists. At the end, each group presented a product of the discussion.

“We present the poster of the DCV4, a different proposal that, instead of making a theoretical assessment, we went into practice, realizing in the field what we see in theory. We list identity in our poster, as our collective was Sarau da Onça, a group of young people from the Sussuarana neighborhood that presents music and poetry and we realized that they affirm the issue of identity a lot in poetry”, explains Mayara Borges, 4th semester student of Psychology at Bahiana.

According to the coordinator of Bahianescer, Prof. Rosicleide Freitas, the forum was very important for discussing the insertion of adolescent health in society. "Adolescence is an age group that is somewhat forgotten by public managers and Bahianescer is present at this event giving support as it is a project of the Bahiana which also works with teenagers in partnership with Adolescer com Arte, which works on the issue of the expanded concept of health, providing other spaces for leisure, culture and expanded discussions with these young people”, he says.

The 4th semester student of psychology at Bahiana, Lais Pimenta, explains that the forum's work was incredible for leaving the institutional scope, which, as a private college, has a totally different perspective. She explains that leaving the books and seeing the reality in the field was enriching, even to pass on the experiences within the academic environment.

“Our work was about enrollment in the adolescent's social field, mediated by collectives. We are left with the NGO Cipó, which does a little of this registration through communication. It was extremely important to get out of the books to get to know a completely different context, especially Cipó, which is located in peripheral communities, assisting a population with political invisibility”, he explains.

"The importance of CAJU, in this forest, in this orchard of Bahiana, is so fruitful. CAJU has a structure and an intention of continuity, of process and, like any process for everyone in the Bahiana, an educational, social action and, above all, it is an outreach activity that brings a lot of hope to us, because we deal with groups of young people from other parts of society, from other communities and take our students who are participating en masse in this program it means that the seed is being well planted internally in our institution”, concludes Prof. Luiza Ribeiro, coordinator of People Development at Bahiana.

At the end of the program, Grupo Adolescer com Arte presented a theatrical play.

Check out the photos.