Youth charity launches mentoring initiative

The Active in Mind project, being piloted in 25 schools across the country, will see 250 young people, aged between 15 and 18, act as mentors to a total of 750 young people experiencing mental wellbeing issues, supporting them to become physically active.

The mentors will receive prior training in developing strategies to improve mental wellbeing and reduce stress and anxiety in their peers and will be supported themselves by lead adult "wellbeing champions". 

The aim of the project is to create a "nurture group" environment in each school for those young people most in need of support, using sport and physical activity as the vehicle for change. The project will be evaluated by academics at Leeds Beckett University.

Chris Wright, head of wellbeing at the Youth Sport Trust, said: "The decline in physical and emotional wellbeing of young people has never been so prevalent as it is in today's society.

"Evidence demonstrates the link between physical activity and good mental health, as well as higher levels of academic achievement and higher levels of wellbeing overall.

"We know through the evaluation of similar programmes we have developed and delivered like Change4Life, Girls Active and YA Peer Leaders that peer mentoring and approaches have a positive benefit to raising physical activity levels.

"We are looking forward to working with Leeds Beckett University to evaluate our pioneering national initiative and ensure it acts as a vehicle for change through sport."

Professor Jonathan Glazzard, principal investigator of the Active in Mind project at Leeds Beckett, said: "We will rigorously evaluate the impact of the project on the mental and physical health of both the mentors and young people.

"We will also produce an online toolkit to support schools in developing their approaches to peer mentoring in sport. We are excited to have been selected as the evaluators for this project and we look forward to reporting the outcomes in 2018."

The project will be the first major piece of research undertaken by the new Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools at Leeds Beckett University - a partnership between the Carnegie School of Education and community interest company Minds Ahead to support children, young people and teachers around issues of mental health.