As part of our commitment to Health and Wellbeing, the Aston Villa Foundation have a dedicated team of Coaches and Wellbeing Practitioners based at Villa Park, committed to supporting the physical and mental health of children and adults across Birmingham.
This World Mental Health Day (Ocotber 10), hear more about how the Aston Villa Foundation are supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our local community...
Advantage Mentoring Programme: Supporting the mental health of young people in Birmingham
The Foundation are pleased to be working closely with the Advantage Mentoring Programme, with funding provided by Health Education England and support from NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB.
Advantage is a free one-to-one wellbeing mentoring programme for 14 to 21-year-olds, delivered by professional football clubs' Community Organisations across the country, working in partnership with their local NHS Trust to provide impactful mental health support for young people.
Through our continuing relationship with the Living Well Consortium, our work with Advantage Mentoring will see one-to-one interventions delivered to around 20 young people over the course of 12 months, ensuring that support mechanisms are in place that allows an individual to manage their mental health and wellbeing independently in the long-term.
Konrad Dowber, Managing Director at Advantage Mentoring CIC, said: "Working in partnership with Aston Villa Foundation to launch the Advantage Mentoring programme across Birmingham has become a template for how we work elsewhere around the country.
"From design of the programme to now delivering we have found the approach and philosophy of the Foundation’s strategy and staff to align fully with ours. We’re proud of the partnership and excited to grow and develop our relationship over the coming years to support more people in the community."
Holly Beedon, Clinical Lead at Living Well Consortium added: “We are so excited to support the Advantage programme at Aston Villa and their unique offer to those aged 14-21.”
Learn more about the Advantage mentoring programme...
A Taste of TeamWork
The Foundation’s TeamWork project aims to bring Villa fans and the wider community together to help improve their mental and physical health, engaging with over 1,800 participants since the project’s inception.
Funded by the Premier League and the Professional Footballer’s Association, the project provides a targeted approach to increased awareness of and help to improve mental health and wellbeing amongst working age adults.
The project covers five separate weekly sessions including TeamWork Foootball, Women’s Walking Football, Over 50’s Walking Football, Bootcamp and Men’s Walking Football.
Last month, over 40 participants were welcomed to the first ‘A Taste of TeamWork’ event, seeing participants from across all five branches of the project in attendance, to have the opportunity to meet new people and try out new forms of physical exercise, to benefit their mental health.
After an hour’s worth of physical exercise, participants were encouraged to sit and share, all while tucking into a delicious meal provided by Phata-Phat Indian Street Food.
