Start Again: Football & Wellbeing Project
Start Again provides a ground breaking football coaching service, which is uniquely designed and tailored to the needs of individuals suffering with mental health issues the approach is radically different to any other approach currently available and empowers young people to engage in regular physical exercise and leadership skills.
About You
Section 1: You
First Name
Mark
Last Name
Peters
Website URL
Organization
Start Again
Country
United Kingdom, BIR
Section 2: Your Organization
Organization Name
Start Again Project CIC
Organization Website
Organization Phone
0121 236 8510
Organization Address
40 Powell St Jewellery Quarter Birmingham B1 3DH
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United Kingdom, BIR
Your idea
Name Your Project
Start Again: Football & Wellbeing Project
Country and state your work focuses on
United Kingdom, BIR
Describe Your Idea
Start Again provides a ground breaking football coaching service, which is uniquely designed and tailored to the needs of individuals suffering with mental health issues the approach is radically different to any other approach currently available and empowers young people to engage in regular physical exercise and leadership skills.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Start Again is an innovative, newly established social enterprise operating in Birmingham to support young people suffering with mental ill health. As a registered Community Interest Company, our mission is to develop the personal, spiritual and social development of young people with a specific focus on the needs of individuals experiencing or recovering from mental ill health. Start Again provides a range of services that include access to:
Information advice and guidance
Mentoring support
Volunteering opportunities
Advice on education, training and employment
Specialist expertise in supporting young people establish social enterprises or enter self employment and
Start Again ‘Football Project’ providing Football Association Level 1 Coaching/ Leadership skills for individuals suffering with mental ill health
The benefit and objectives of Start Again are to harness:
User led service; empowering young people
Holistic support for wellbeing: physical, mental, social and cognitive skills
Provision of stable, supportive and enabling environments
Occupational therapy/ re-interrogation into society
De-stigmatisation of mental health
Harnessing leadership qualities
Fostering volunteering opportunities
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
To date Start Again has worked with over 260 young people on our football & wellbeing projects. 90% of the young people that we have worked with have either been suffering from mental health issues or those that are living within supported accommodation or are homeless. Our sessions have enabled a selection of the young people to acquire various hard and soft outcomes from taking part in the sessions from gaining employment and work experience, volunteering opportunities to increased self esteem and confidence and reduction in medication and relapses.
Problem
One in six people suffer, at some point in their life, from a mental health issue in the UK. It is widely known that effects of mental illness in early life have a negative impact upon individuals’ opportunities to complete education, training, gain qualifications or become socially and economically independent.
In 2009, the Mental Health Foundation Trust published a groundbreaking report titled ‘Moving On Up’ explaining the connection between exercise and mental health and how exercise therapy is an effective treatment for mild to moderate depression.
Our innovation is addressing all of the above issues. By using sport as an engagement tool we can encourage young people to further develop their personal skills to increase their opportunities within education, training and employment. We administer opportunities as well as offer what we can to assist with the facilities we have for young people to embark on this path.
Actions
Start Again’s innovative approach of using sport as an engagement tool detracts from the more clinical approach of treating mental health problems such as depression with tablets and medical treatment.
Many mental health issues are surrounded by stigma and a negative outlook. On many occasions these unhelpful viewpoints leave the suffering individual feeling inadequate, alone, confused and unable to communicate how they’re feeling. Current mental health service provisions do little to empower the individual to manage their own recovery plan and to integrate a holistic approach to their sustained recovery.
Start Again requires the individual to play a central role in the selection and delivery of therapeutic activities. Options stretch beyond traditional approaches and integrate exercise, which has been shown to improve mental wellbeing as well as social benefit.
Results
The customised support we offer in the form of exercise, community re-integration and employment opportunities aims to support young people suffering with mental health to regain control of their lives and re-ignite a sense of purpose and wellbeing.
People from BME communities are 1 in 5 times more likely to be sectioned than their white counterparts who are 1 in 10. We look to address health inequalities particularly in mental health, across geographical neighborhoods and communities of interest.
The opportunities and stable/supportive environment we provide make it entirely plausible for the project to:
Reduce acute relapses
Maintain people for longer periods in the community
Move people living in supported accommodation to independent living
Meaningful community re-integration
Stable mental health will open the door to new employment opportunities and a more promising future
Support families caring for young people with mental illness.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year 1 During the next year Start Again requires support in publishing the methods used to a wider audience. Development with organizations that network with Changemakers will help Start Again inform others of our work. Funding that is unrestricted will also enable Start Again within the first year to develop pilot projects with other sports and enable further engagement of marginalized groups.
Year 2 – Continued networking support with organizations locally, regionally and internationally will enable Start Again to develop clear messages and inform change amongst the groups that the organization works with.
Year 3 – Growth and development will be an important factor at year 3. New ideas and methods of working will need to be developed so effective work can take place within the organization.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Start Again will not fulfill its potential unless networking links are sustained and developed to enable continually reflection of our work and the development of good practice. Funding will also restrict our development during the current economic crisis.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
United Kingdom, BIR
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
No
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
No
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Clinical Partnerships – The NHS is facing challenging times – it has been tasked to deliver more for less, some £20bn less. Faced with this task it has to find solutions that are both innovative as well as sustainable. In addition, these solutions need be easily replicable so that they can be diffused widely for maximal social and health impact. Social venturing is uniquely placed to deliver solutions of this nature. Their relative independence and creative flair affords them a flexibility and adaptability that optimises their chances of success. Social ventures – being strongly community led - create both social and economic capital in ways that traditional centrally driven approaches to system change in the NHS have not done to date. This community gain is attractive to a struggling system that needs to share the burden of health and social care.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
Social venturing is a relatively new concept for the NHS. As such, the process of engaging with it is complex – it cannot simply be parachuted into a host institution, especially one as vast and complex as the NHS. It needs to begin with an understanding of what social venturing is, and the true potential it might have, as well as addressing the fears and threats that have been inadvertently tagged to social entrepreneurship. Only after this has been secured, can ventures be appropriately considered and supported.
Start Again offers the first example of a venture that has emerged from the SEiR initiative. The learning from the venture and the process leading up to the selection and support of the venture to date will yield invaluable learning about the process of sustainable innovation in the NHS.
Referral Partners - Start Again has the potential to bring important new learning to:
• The method of social innovation in the NHS
• A new approach to accessing hard to reach sectors of the community and redress health inequalities.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
As the founding member of the Start Again Project the idea for this innovation comes from my love of sport combined with the successes I’ve had in my career as a social worker working with young people. Throughout the progression of my career I’ve been able to draw gratification from the ability to assist young people within their personal development. However I noticed a real gap in the health service when dealing with the diagnosis of a close family member.
In 2007 my brother was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and sadly was ultimately sectioned in hospital. During the process of his recovery I noticed the service and treatment he was receiving at the hands of the health service was not conducive in enabling him to get better and back to his independent self. I felt not enough was being done to regain his self esteem and confidence that had been eroded due to ill health and immediately felt there was a gap in the way the health service was working with young people.
I felt the type of care he was receiving was not a style I was used to as I was used to working with young people and treating them as equal partners. I felt that this issue of treatment needed to be addressed and so Start-Again was born.
I wanted to connect young people suffering with mental health issues with things they were interested in and use this as a way of communicating with them as well as helping them. My passion for sport and helping young people inspired me to combine the two to create a process that would engage, support and develop young people. My research into the effects of sport on mental health found that the outcomes were positive and productive.
There was a lack of early intervention programmes that addressed mental health issues related to young people and I felt that this was exactly where Start Again could fit in and make a real difference to the lives of so many individuals.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
I was born in Birmingham, England my passion for supporting people has been developed from a young age and my work as a community and youth worker. Through my various roles I have now developed into the role of a social entrepreneur and I’m keen to develop individuals to help them achieve their own personal goals. Start Again – in common with the nature of many social enterprises – offers real potential to redress health inequalities. Mental Health has long been stigmatized, especially in young people. The consequences of this stigmatisation has led to a reluctance to engage with or adhere to treatment, leading to a lifetime crippled by crises and breakdowns. Start Again offers an alternative method of accessing this group within both the acute and community care sectors. This spread of provision is critically important and a unique feature of Start Again. The Start Again method is to use football as therapy as well as an enabler, helping young people gain control of their lives and learn new skills through which they can flourish. This rather than any amount of counseling and prescription medication is likely to improve quality of life and reduce health inequalities in this community.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
 | 91 weeks agomark peters submitted this idea. |
