28 How do co-created mental health and life-skill workshops meet the support needs of 14–25-year-olds in London during COVID-19 and beyond?

Background The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health has received growing attention, but the challenges that adolescents living with existing inequalities face are not well documented or addressed. Few collaborative solutions between academic and community organisations exist to recognise and address the support needs of vulnerable young people. Aim The EMPOWER-Islington Project co-created five mental health and life-skill workshops with and for young people in London Islington – a borough with high deprivation. Methods Workshops informed by a qualitative study of local authority-referred 14-to-25-year-olds' (60% female) challenges and support needs during Covid-19 (Lee & Wong, under review) were uncovered by 1-on-1 semi-structured interviews (N=20) and focus groups (N=6; average group size = 2.83). The impact of the workshops on adolescents and the co-creation process are reported. Results The five workshop themes included: opening up about mental health stories; body image and self-confidence; mindfulness and the arts; education and careers; and healthy routines and sleep habits. Young people provided positive feedback on workshop attendance through surveys and voice notes. Young people spoke about feeling equipped to explore different career options, developing better sleep routines, and enjoying feeding back on the end-of-project animation. However, overall attendance rate was lower than expected. We will share lessons learned, the importance of incentive, timing, and setting of the workshops. Conclusions Collaborating with local organisations (i.e. the local council, youth centres), co-designing workshops, and involving young people opportunities to contribute to research has immediate short-term impacts for young people. Embedding young people's voices throughout the project timeline and existing processes would be beneficial for future workshops, especially to reach young people less motivated to participate.