CORESZON stands for Community Resilience Network, a nonprofit capacity-building program based out of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Its goal is to improve mental health equity for disadvantaged children by addressing social health determinants. Rather than targeting children, CORESZON works with the caretakers and other important adults that shape their social environment.

Since its beginnings in the field of refugee aid, CORESZON has developed a capacity building approach that brings together diverse perspectives on mental wellbeing and facilitates cooperation. With a training curriculum for parents and professionals alike, CORESZON offers skills-based mental health education that enables anyone – independent of formal qualification – to qualify as a peer-to-peer mental health educator in their community.

The methodology taught by peer trainers centers on what we all have in common: a nervous system that responds similarly to stress and wellbeing. Taught in interactive group workshops, it aims to enhance interoception, or the capacity “to know one’s own heart”, which has been demonstrated to play an essential role for mental wellbeing and social connection.