Bournemouth AFC Sponsorship - Mental Health and Well-Being Program
We are so excited to announce that we have become official partners of AFC Bournemouth’s Community Sports Trust for the 2021/22 season.
We will support and sponsor the Mental Health and Well-Being programme to deliver more than fifty workshops in primary and secondary schools across Dorset this season. Our managing director Toni will be joining the team to go into schools and help deliver these life-changing workshops, with the help of the program leader, other partners and not to mention some of AFC Bournemouth’s finest.
It’s no surprise that children and young people’s mental health are suffering at this time, but what is shocking is the number and severity of the issue and how it’s still such a low priority on the public agenda. The stats are quite simply scary with suicide being the largest cause of mortality for young people under thirty-five, one in twenty of five to nineteen-year-olds are dealing with a behavioural disorder, pupils with mental health problems are far more likely to be excluded from school than their peers, and Children from the poorest 20% of households are four times more likely to have serious mental health difficulties by the age of eleven. According to an NHS study taken in 2020, one in six school-aged children has a mental health problem. This is a dramatic rise from one in ten in 2004 and one in nine in 2017.
Yes, these numbers are scary but we aren’t going to accept it, we’re going to do something about it, for this generation and for the generations to come. Through the mental health and wellbeing program, AFC Bournemouth and its partners are taking matters into their own hands to bring the change they so desperately want to see in the lives of children and young people in Dorset. The programme will help educational leaders raise awareness of the subject and hopefully integrate mental health education into the curriculum.
The project is designed to encourage the younger generation to talk openly and freely about mental health, to help remove the stigma and misconceptions that surround it, and empower them with a mental health tool kit to understand mental health at every stage of life.
They will be delivered using both theory and participation by community coaches, with an element of physical activity too.
The workshops focus on improving well-being and maintaining a healthy body and mind. Students will also learn the importance of setting achievable goals for the future and how to recognise changes in someone's behaviour and the importance of seeking help when they need it.
Our purpose at Tru Talent has always been to elevate others and our partnership with AFC Bournemouth continues that mission. We are so passionate about this project because we recognised that this program not only creates immediate positive change within the lives of young people across Dorset but more importantly they equip young people with the knowledge, understanding, and tools they need to help them with mental health issues for their lives to come.
Our managing director Toni Taylor shared “For me, still being a fairly new business owner, it was really important to be involved in some new projects with organisations who share our same values and have the same commitment to our local community that we do.
When I saw the opportunity to support such an important cause that many of us face in our lives or have faced within the last year, I was keen to get involved and be able to give something back! We are so pleased to be able to support this project and can’t wait to see first-hand some of the positive changes within our community and young people.