YMCA Manchester is a registered charity. Our charitable aims have been delivered through various youth and community programmes since our inception as well as the YClub, a sports and leisure facility. We reach out to individuals and communities experiencing the most disadvantage in terms health and access to facilities, with an emphasis on children and young people and their mental health and wellbeing. Our work takes account of the impact trauma has on children and young people engaging and succeeding in various aspects of their lives, including education and wider society.
Illustration by Tengku Ilyana, YMCA Manchester Mental Health Champion
Our first grant from the Pixel Fund is greatly appreciated as it is enabling us to continue our Mental Health Champions (MHC) project, delivered since April 2018, in response to increased mental health need amongst children and young people, including since last year, the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The project is an early intervention initiative, helping to break stigma, build strategies and the resilience protective factors of connection and belonging. It is youth led, co-designed and coproduced with young people. We work particularly in partnership with schools, colleges and the university in Salford to engage young people. We moved our project online since the first Covid lockdown in March 2020.
Artwork produced by peer educators at FutureSkills College
Artwork produced by peer educators at Eccles College
The project is focussed on raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing with young people, who are mainly living or studying in Salford; this year they are largely 16 – 25 year olds. It gives young people the opportunity to lead, develop, implement mental health awareness campaigns, in the spirit of personal development, leadership, and peer-learning. The project encourages conversations about mental health and wellbeing and sharing of messages and personal stories about strategies that young people are using to manage their mental health issues. We are also offering mental health awareness workshops to young people. This process is intended to normalise mental health, so young people feel able to talk and seek help.
We recruit young people as peer educators/Mental Health Champions. They can take on various roles to support