Last Friday, we hosted a graduation ceremony that marked a milestone for The Change Foundation.
The graduation celebrated 15 young people who had completed our 12-week Work Hard, Play Hard programme.
The programme exclusively uses basketball to engage young people in conversations about mental health. It’s the first time we’ve created a basketball programme and so far the results have been incredible.
One graduate shared: “I’m very thankful for these basketball sessions, they’ve been life-changing. I like how they incorporated mental health into basketball. The sessions gave me something to look forward to every week.”
In 2023 1/5 of young people were diagnosed with having a mental health condition. Having recognised the need for a targeted mental health programme, Yvette Santana, a senior Coach Mentor at The Change Foundation enrolled on an Introduction to Counselling qualification and used her knowledge to help write the programme.
Yvette shared: “I feel the programme was able to develop a level of trust , communication, safety and awareness that is not given within our young peoples’ everyday lives. It was an honour to watch/help these young people develop and begin their healing journey.”
We hope to open this programme to another cohort later in the year and look forward to improving how we effectively use sports to support the mental health of young people.
