Recap | National GeestKracht meeting
| September 23, 2025 | Final presentations MBO Utrecht and Alfa-college
“When students feel seen and heard, it creates room for growth.”
On Wednesday 23 September the national meeting community service GeestKracht took place at MBO Utrecht. During this inspiring day VET students, educational professionals from MBO Utrecht and Alfa-college and organizations such as MBO Raad, JOBmbo, MIND and ECIO came together to look back on the past years of GeestKracht and look ahead to the future of student well-being in VET.
Student participation as key to change
The meeting was opened by Elke van Doorn (ECIO). Then students from MBO Utrecht and Alfa-college presented their experiences and final products: concrete improvement ideas for education, developed from their own perspective. What stood out? The impact of GeestKracht goes far beyond the ideas themselves.
Students got to know themselves and each other better, dared to be open about their feelings, undertook joint activities and recognized themselves in each other’s stories. GeestKracht shows how important it is to actively guide and involve students in improving their learning environment.
Working sessions: building sustainable assurance together
In two interactive working sessions, participants discussed the future of GeestKracht and mental wellness in education. The first session revolved around securing attention to mental health and breaking taboos. Together, participants formulated important conditions:
- Keep it approachable and accessible to all
- Integrate mental wellness into school policies
- Professionalize staff and teachers
- Collaborate with students and experts by experience
- Encourage exchange between students
The second session focused on collaboration within schools and the use of networks and platforms for knowledge sharing. A shared need emerged to make mental well-being more visible, for example through billboards, theme weeks and involving all staff.
Students indicated that there is a great lack of information, making it difficult to ask for help or to be open. Small interventions such as a Moodboard in the classroom, on which students and teachers indicate their moods daily, can go a long way. The importance of openness among teachers was also mentioned: a teacher who is honest about feelings lowers the threshold for students to do the same.
The term mainstreaming was dropped several times: normalizing conversations about mental health is essential to keep the topic alive.
Impression Improvement Ideas
MindForce moves on – also outside community service
The meeting ended with a communal lunch, where there was plenty of networking and knowledge sharing. The day provided valuable insights, new connections and concrete handles for the future.
Although the community service project, as at Alfa-college, is unfortunately coming to an end, the movement that GeestKracht set in motion remains alive and kicking. MBO Utrecht showed that student participation and attention to mental well-being can also be firmly anchored in education through other forms of funding, in this case from the municipality of Utrecht.
GeestKracht is thus more than just a project. It is a lasting movement that shows that student participation leads to sustainable change. ECIO remains committed to strengthening this movement, together with educational institutions, students and social partners, so that mental well-being becomes a natural part of education policy.
What is a GeestKracht school?
A GeestKracht school puts mental health on the map. Students are actively working to improve wellness at school. They not only think along, but also implement their ideas. Together with teachers and other staff they make mental health discussable, in a way that suits their own perceptions.
ECIO guides schools in this with a practical approach. In recent years this was done mainly through the FNO program GeestKracht and later as an community service project. Unfortunately, this community service project expires at the end of 2025. Since 2024 schools can also work independently as GeestKracht schools, with other forms of funding. MBO Utrecht, for example, did so with the support of the municipality of Utrecht.
Also getting started?
As a school, do you want to discover how to implement GeestKracht in your own institution? Would you like to know more about the possibilities? Contact us and find out how we can support you.
