The Mental Health Manifesto - Action For Our Future Year 3 annual report
By Nicole Burchett Single Parents Wellbeing
Every year we are asked by our funders to report and let them know how we are impacting the community and the people we work with. The National Lottery Community Fund that supports the Mental Health Manifesto - Action For Our Future project, has asked us to report on our third year and below is a summary of the report.
1. What the funding has helped us do in year 3 - our activities
‘…this group has helped me develop my confidence and independence to talk to other people of different ages, especially people older than me’ (C4C young volunteer)
In total across year three, we have run 118 sessions and had 734 contacts with young people aged 10-24. We have done this through different types of activities and engagement:
Mini Meet Ups (MMU) - small events that are run for a maximum group of around 10 young people, based on the suggestions made by the young people. They are an opportunity for them to meet each other peer to peer and have some fun.
Big Meet Ups (BMU) - run on average about three per term. These incorporate a variety of activities to engage all young people’s preferences and the themes and ideas for these come from the volunteers.
Champions for Change (C4C) - a weekly gathering of volunteer young people (aged 10-16) where a co-produced rotation of four sessions is held: Co-production; Connection Cafe; Guest speaker; and a Social.
Youth Action Academy (YAA) - meet during term time and the young people (17-24) volunteer by feeding into the project delivery with ideas and suggestions when things are not running quite so smoothly, alongside training, socials and input into research.
Game Changer (GC) and Craftitude were both ideas suggested by the young people with the aim of engaging non/anxious- school attenders and both involve conversations about wellbeing.
Feedback from the young people
We receive and capture feedback at every event we run, so the young people can help shape what we offer and let us know if we need to change anything (this approach of coproduction is threaded through the project). Here are some quotes from the young people to show the impact of our work: ‘I’ve enjoyed this so much, I want to come back and do this again’, ‘I’ve just written my name in Chinese, it looks awesome’, ‘This was the best get together yet.’
What we set out to achieve
Of the ten targets set for the project at the start, we have exceeded seven of them (with a year to go) and we are well on track to meet or exceed the other three (see table). This does not mean we are sitting back in our last year, in fact we have reset the targets to achieve even more impact.
2. How we engaged people - coproduction, training and leadership
‘SPW is so good and makes such a difference to both our parents and to us.
Everyone is so lovely to talk to’ (C4C young volunteer)
YAAs and C4Cs are a group of young people who regularly join us and feed in their ideas to shape the work we do. We also collect thoughts from the other young people who come to our events through ‘co-production tables’ where we ask them what they think about issues related to them. We also offer training to the young people e.g. bullying and mental health and have run reverse mentoring sessions.
Young people regularly engage with the staff team through joining and presenting at our team meetings, which helps them develop confidence and leadership skills. Building on ideas from the young people on how to engage non/anxious-school attenders, we have particular sessions and a WhatsApp group with the parents to keep connected. To add to this we have also run a ‘What Does My Family Look Like?’ pilot to help young people talk about their homelife.
3. How we are working in partnership - what we each bring to the table
The MHM project has three Lead Partners: Public Health Wales; Mental Health Foundation; and Swansea University. They add value by providing opportunities for the young people to speak into research, join staff on training (such as research and group facilitation skills) and provide support in evaluation and reporting.
4. The difference we are making - the voice of the young people
‘...SPW's events are a great way…to meet other kids/ teens from single parents
and to talk about how they are feeling with people who understand’ (YAA young volunteer)
There are a number of different ways we collect information on the work we are doing with the young people, this helps us assess what sort of impact we are having. Our partner, Swansea University, produces three-monthly reports from the field notes that the staff write after each event, and included in these are recommendations. These recommendations are taken by the team into the offer of the project (and can be read on the MHM project page). The four themes that consistently emerge from these are:
Improved confidence and social interaction
Increased knowledge about mental health and support pathways
Healthy relationships and reduced stigma
A sense of ownership and pride in their contributions.
5. What we have learned - gifts and challenges
Data collection can be a tricky one. Knowing what data you need to collect at the start of a project is difficult - especially when it is co-produced. Of course this is guided by the aims of the project, but sometimes the systems need a bit of tweaking along the way. Threading co-production throughout the entirety of the project is both a gift and a challenge; staff have to be open and flexible to adjust to the suggestions of the young people for it to be truly co-produced. When it comes to the staff team, recruitment has proved challenging at times, due to the short-term funding and fixed term contracts. This has also impacted the young people who remind us of the importance of the right staff to build healthy relationships. However, creating a safe and relational environment is part of the approach of Single Parents Wellbeing and enables all staff to take responsibility for reaching the targets of the project.
6. How we have changed what we are doing - full circle feedback and constant improvement
‘SPW listens to my ideas and helps me to make them happen’ (C4C young volunteer)
Co-production is the approach adopted by SPW and is threaded through the ethos and values. It is applied on a daily basis in the MHM project where young people feed into all aspects of how we do things. An example of this is where the older YAA group have regular requests for solutions from the team to address challenges, the YAA solutions are then shared and the staff are held accountable with ‘full circle’ feedback, where the team then have to evidence the changes implemented. We understand the pressures on single parent households and are flexible to run events that meet some of these needs, such as free or subsidised attendance to events and providing food or snacks. We also have a paid counsellor who attends and co-facilitates the C4C sessions due to the increase in need shown by the young people as they became more comfortable with each other. SPW as a whole is also working towards being an anti-racist organisation and we have incorporated regular workshop discussions on how to tackle microaggressions and every job description has a responsibility to ensure equity, diversity and inclusion responsibility written into it.
7. Mental Health Manifesto: Going in to Year 4
‘Thank you for making every get together so different,
looking forward to the next one’ (C4C young volunteer)
SPW has implemented an annual staff survey, as well as many different policies and training, to help staff know boundaries, to feel safe and supported. This open approach will continue and allow challenges to be addressed as they arise. The structure of the MHM project has changed and going into the final year there has been a re-focus on the aim of ‘Healthy Relationships’ with, and between, the young people. This has resulted from a learning of the importance of this for the success of the remaining aims; creating and maintaining connections with staff and peer to peer has the most impact, therefore, the model of the C4Cs and YAAs will be replicated in a different geographical area. The MHM project will continue to co-production and empower young people to have a voice and influence systems and services that affect them. We will meet our targets and hope to exceed all ten. Excitingly, Swansea University is working towards publication of a systematic review that looks at the impact of young people who come from a single parent household. Lastly we hope to become more sustainable through development of the SPW fund and awareness raising arm Raise.
Summary.
As we head into year 4 and the final year of the project, our focus remains on the volunteers and young people we work with. We will continue to listen to them, be guided by them and offer them opportunities to have their voice heard. We are currently coproducing and preparing for an event to celebrate the MHM project. This event will be led by the young people and will take place at the start of next year, so keep your eyes on our website as we’d love to see you there!
‘...being a part of SPW has made me feel confident, supported
and encouraged as a young person’ (YAA young volunteer)
Find out more about our young person’s project and how to get involved here.