Wakefield charity paves the way in campaign to address root causes of poor mental health in young people

‘It’s Our Day’, a registered charity who work directly with young people to raise awareness of the importance of government led primary prevention strategies that they claim would see a reduction in the number of young people who have reported poor mental health.

Goals for the charity will include collaborating with universities, schools and medical professionals to address the root causes of poor mental health in society and reduce the number of people reaching crisis.

As part of their campaign, volunteers at ‘It’s Our Day’ set up an outreach programme called the Student Breakfast Club, which is stationed at Leeds Cardigan Centre.

There, they offer out student survival kits full of cleaning products, hot sandwiches, food and sanitary products.

They also speak to students about their mental health, what support is available on offer to them and what they think would work better - the volunteers then go away and research how to campaign for change to happen.

Theresa Kirk Chair of It's Our Day said: “Even though research tells us that 80% of students experience mental health issues too many students feel they are alone in how they feel.

“The objective of our Outreach Project was very simple in that we aimed to engage students then take the opportunity to provide information about how to stay well.

“We recognise that Universities provide lots of advice and guidance during Fresher’s weeks however we believe that the timeliness of advice and information is key to its efficacy.

“Therefore we decided to engage students with the promise of a free breakfast sandwich, addressing student food poverty, in a space that students might feel free to talk about mental well being in a way and an environment that isn’t medicalised in any way.”

Chloe Grainger, 22, a volunteer at ‘It’s Our Day’, is a student herself, she said: “We really got things up and running with the charity, obviously Covid had a knock-on effect with the development.

“But in the summer we set up a takeaway version of the Student Breakfast Club.

“We’re self funded, but staff at our local Asda and Vodafone have been amazing, not long ago we packed 50 boxes and I remember how they all went within the first hour.

“It’s crazy how many students are happy to talk to us about what’s going on in their lives, and we can tell them about things that they don’t know.

“For example, only secondary prevention strategies are available at present.

“But many get primary and secondary prevention against poor mental health mixed up.

“Secondary prevention would include meetings and doctors appointments, but they’re only available when the sufferer is at crisis points.

“We want a strategy to prevent people from getting to that point.

“It won’t help everyone, but a lot of common stressors amongst people of all ages are down to what’s happening in society at the moment.

“We’re not campaigning for a divide, ultimately we want to work with organisations to identify areas that need improvement, within education and health services - now more than ever.”

The charity, as well as being self funded, are reliant on donations to make up their packs, and donations to hire the Cardigan Centre, and running the Student Breakfast club to engage with students about their well being.

The team of volunteers consists of trustees, volunteers, voice of the young volunteers and a young doctor - who give up their own time and resources to raise awareness of the importance of Primary Prevention strategies and to campaign for policy makers to implement them

Fundraising events have currently ceased for them, however they are in the midst of organising a charity skydive.

A study conducted by the BMJ, a leading medical journal, in September of this year shows that despite a low number of deaths overall among people aged under 25 years, the data showed that rates of suicide in this age group have generally increased in recent years, particularly in the case of 10 to 24 year old females, whose rate has increased by 94% since 2012.

Chloe said: “The most prevalent thing at the moment amongst young people who attend the breakfast club is the pandemic outrage and the support available to them while studying for their degrees.

“A lot of them are concerned about grades, contact, lack of library resources and even Christmas.

“We’re engaging with youths to give them the support and recognition they deserve.

“We have found that communicating between educational organisations and the young people who attend is such an important place to start.

“We’re on a local level right now, between Wakefield and Leeds, but we have volunteers working closely in Manchester and Newcastle - hopefully in the future we can spread our support UK wide.

“We want to work collaboratively with people of all ages and backgrounds, Policy Makers, Institutions, Organisations and service providers so that together we can understand what we all need to do to bring about positive change.”

To find out more about the charity, utilise their services, become a volunteer or lend a helping hand, see their website or visit their Instagram