At Fink, we love to connect with local organisations who share our vision of a better mental health future for young people. We are delighted to have created a new partnership with Reading-based charity No5 Young People.
We'll be supporting this awesome bunch with a weekly donation of our profits, group cooking skills classes and shouting about their mission from our street food stall. This is also a very special year for No5, who are celebrating their 50th Anniversary!
Carly Newman, Operations & Relationship Manager, has kindly written this guest blog to tell you a bit more about No5, how they support young people and the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic. Check it out.....
Since 1971, No5 has been providing free, confidential mental health support and counselling for 11-25 year old who live, work or study in the ‘RG’ postcode area. For us, young people being able to ask for help when they need it is vital to early intervention and better long-term outcomes for people struggling with their mental health.
We provide up to 20 sessions of free counselling to all young people who ask for help, and take a young person-led approach to the support we offer – some young people may only need a few sessions, whilst others will need more.
Covid-19 has meant that we have had to find different ways to support young people, taking our services online for the first time! Now we are offering 150 sessions a week of counselling via Zoom and telephone, whilst continuing to provide counselling in 7 local secondary schools. We are excited to get back to face-to-face support in the coming months whilst continuing our online offer.
Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of us all, particularly young people: A total of 416 young people have asked for help in the last 6 months, that’s 214 more than the same time last year and the number of young people who need support with their mental health shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, we expect that as lockdown restrictions ease, and young people return to school, even more young people will be seeking out support. We have seen an increase in young people struggling particularly with depression, isolation and anxiety, and an exacerbation of pre-existing issues such as OCD as a result of Covid-19 and the recent months of lockdowns.
We are lucky to have an incredible team of Young Ambassadors who have supported local young people through blogs, videos and resources to help local young people take charge of their own mental health in recent months. Our Young Ambassadors all have their own experiences of struggling with their mental health, and their recovery either via support from No5 or other organisations means they have found their voices and use these to support their peers and promote good mental health.
You can check out their content here:
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