By Jade Zelcowicz | Senior Community Fundraiser
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who has donated to us so far! As a small charity, your continued support is invaluable to us so on behalf of everyone at YoungMinds and the people we support – thank you.
As well as this thanks, I also wanted to take this opportunity to update you about the recent developments at our charity, in what is a crucial time for young people’s mental health. With the pledges made by the major policy influencing parties this past may in the run-up to the election, YoungMinds are keen to see the promises made by policy-makers in regards to young people’s mental health services kept. Furthermore, in line with the uncertainty such a change in power brings, we are looking to make our services as robust as possible, including our engagement with young people, so that we may continue to provide support as best we can.
‘Thank you, because if it wasn’t for YoungMinds and all the wonderful staff you have I wouldn’t be the person I am today, but most importantly I wouldn’t even be here today. You have given me a second chance at life and I am so thankful for it.’
Jack Wilson, YoungMinds Vs Activist
Our highly successful Youth Engagement project YoungMinds Vs has continued to developalso. The campaign demands for change in the lives of young people, revolving around school stress, bullying, sexual pressures, work pressures and access to mental health services. 50,000 young people have pledged to support the campaign. In the last year 5,000 young people with emotional and mental health problems have reported an improvement in self-worth and a sense of empowerment.
Our online presence has continued to grow also, helping us to engage with a wide variety of audiences and stakeholders, both young people and adults . Our Twitter page now has over 57,000 followers up from 32,000 in April and our Facebook page has 11,000 likes up from 4,500. The nature of social media and the Internet means that for young people who are isolated, either emotionally or physically and too scared to seek help, or geographically from mental health services, are able find help and advice at any time, day or night. Thus it is important that we maintain these resources.
‘YoungMinds is doing valuable work to highlights a crucial issue – that mental health is often disadvantaged in local spending plans. We’ve set out plans to improve care for young people and I would urge everyone to put pressure on local commissioners to make sure children’s mental health gets its fair share.’
Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk
As part of our policy work, we have also recently launched a campaign called #keepyourword. This was a direct result of the recent UK general elections and the promises made by various parties around support for young people’s mental health services. Through this campaign we are providing a platform for our supporters to put pressure on government and policymakers to ensure that the policy promises made in the run up to the election are kept.
By Ellie Saltrick | Corporate and Trusts Fundraiser
By Ellie Saltrick | Corporate & Trusts Fundraiser
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