Category: News

We are delighted to announce that we have received a grant of £1,000 from the Heart of England Community Foundation, as part of their partnership with The Alan Edward Higgs Charity. This grant is aimed at supporting small grassroots community-based organisations like ours, who are making a difference in the lives of young people.

With this grant, we will be able to fund one mentor in one of our schools for three months. Our mentors provide vital support and guidance to students who are struggling with mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem. They help them cope with their challenges, build their resilience, and achieve their potential.

We are very grateful to the Heart of England Community Foundation and The Alan Edward Higgs Charity for their generosity and trust in our work. This grant will enable us to continue our mission of empowering young minds and creating positive change in our community.

We are delighted to announce that we have received a generous grant of £2,200 from Little Lives UK. This grant is part of their Someone To Talk To mental health programme.

Little Lives UK want to ensure that every child deserves the best start in life filled with happiness, laughter fun and joy. Little Lives UK work with partners and other support giving organisations across the UK to make sure that children around the UK can receive professional mental health support.

We are very grateful for this grant, which will enable us to fund one mentor in one of our schools for six months. Our mentors are trained and experienced in working with children and young people, and they provide a safe and supportive space for them to talk about their feelings, worries, and hopes. Our mentors also help them develop coping skills, resilience, and confidence.

Thank you, Little Lives UK, for your generous support and trust in our work. Together, we can make a positive impact on the lives of children and young people in our community.

This Christmas let’s make mental health a priority!

As a nation we’re known to be avid pet lovers and at Young Minds Matter we’re a passionate group of people who avidly support young people’s mental health.
To lighten up our lives over the festive period, and ultimately lighten up the lives of more young people, we’d like to invite you to join our fund-raising photo challenge and post a lovely photo of your furry friend in festive spirit!

This need not involve a Christmas costume – it could just be with a festive background – anything that will make us smile and will show off your pet to the best of their ability!

Young Minds Matter provides 1:1 mentors for students in schools, building resilience, self-esteem and confidence and we provide this service free of charge, simply so that no child who needs support goes without.

We have waiting lists of students as well as waiting lists of schools hence the more funds we can raise the sooner we can access more students. Young people’s mental health is at crisis point; they have been hit hard since lockdown especially and we would love your support with this challenge.

Here’s what you need to do:
1: Add a festive picture of your lovable furry friend to your social media feed or story
2: Tag 3 friends (and us!) with furry friends and challenge them to do the same.
3: Text PETS to 70490 to donate £2 (texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message)

Alternatively click this link to donate – https://lnkd.in/eJ7NXasZ

Our Young Minds Matter 2022 Channel Swim team were pleased to be finalists of the BBC CWR Make a Difference Awards 2023.

Sue Roberts (Founder), Eitan and Hayden (Two members of our swim team) and their families attended the ceremony on Sunday 17th September.

Sadly it wasn’t to be on the night and although we didn’t win, it was a n hour to be amongst 30 individuals, community organisations and charities who are all doing amazing inspirational work for the benefit of others.

In 2022 the teenage boys who swam the channel, which is in a challenge itself, but they managed to raise a huge amount of £15,000 all for YMM.

We look forward to 2024 where will be swimming the channel again, but this time with two-4-person relay teams.

Trigger Warning – discussion of eating disorders

Sofia is a 21 year old student currently studying for a Masters in Environmental Science. We asked if she would share some of her experiences with eating disorders, and how she is finding the current lockdown.

I was first diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in 2018 after my first year of university and whilst I like to consider myself well on the road to recovery, lockdown has definitely had a significant effect on that journey. I think for a lot of us lockdown has left us feeling out of control, not knowing when things will be getting back to normal, and for me it’s this lack of control that at times, has meant that my old eating disorder habits have crept back into the forefront of my life. 

What I would usually do as coping mechanisms (like going to the gym or eating in a social setting with friends) have instead been replaced by feelings of intense isolation, the same daily walks around the block and even more time at home to sit with my own thoughts and feelings. Controlling my food intake and obsessing over exercise have been at times the only thing I’ve felt any control over. Although thankfully, I am now much better at stopping the old habits from spiralling. Recovery for me over the years has involved a lot of things: CBT therapy, antidepressants, anxiety medication, counsellors and the countless meal plans that I do now help me to feel much better equipped to deal with things than I used to be. 

Lockdown has been tough mentally for us all and so we should all be so proud of how we’ve coped in such uncertain times. It’s hard and unsettling to re-discover parts of your eating disorder that you thought you’d dealt with and so I think it’s always worth reminding ourselves that we’re not alone in this silent struggle. 

The road to recovery will never be straight forward, I’ve learnt that, but please never forget how far you’ve truly come. Speaking out, sharing experiences, talking to people you trust is never a wrong choice when it comes to your mental health. Be kind to your mind and, as we ease back into some sort of normality, don’t forget just how resilient and how strong you already are.