Thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, Maidstone & Mid-Kent Mind will be providing Youth Support In Maidstone & Swale for the next five years,
The below press release has more details on the new Youth Support In Maidstone & Swale:
Maidstone and Mid-Kent Mind Awarded £449,000 To Deliver Youth Support in Maidstone and Swale
Maidstone and Mid-Kent Mind (MMKM) have been awarded just under £450,000 through the National Lottery’s Reaching Communities Fund to support a new children and youth programme.
MMKM’s new Youth Support Programme has been developed with the goal of empowering young people to better manage their mental health and emotions. By reaching young people early in life, changes can be made to the coping strategies that these people are able to utilise across their lives.
Under the programme, young people will be able to access structured CBC courses; which look at common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. This, combined with an out-of-hours Wellbeing Café and Social Activity Groups, will provide young people with additional opportunities to access peer-to-peer support.
The programme will also offer the community an opportunity to receive Mental Health First Aid training and Mental Health Awareness sessions.
Julie Blackmore, MMKM CEO, says:
“During my tenure as CEO of MMKM, we have seen gradually increasing demand for children and youth mental health support services. Services like our out-of-hours, once-monthly youth group have proved beneficial for our service users – so this grant is an important part of the continual implementation of these vital services.
The grant will enable us to offer additional services which are non-costed for individuals from all backgrounds within the community. This means we can ensure that any young people in need feel confident accessing the services provided by MMKM.”
The first year of the programme’s delivery will be Maidstone based. Once the initial implementation year has been completed, support will also be available in Swale. The programme will support primary and secondary school aged children.
This new initiative will further benefit the longevity of mental health support in the local area – providing youth support for the next five years. It will also provide additional staff vacancies – including a new manager to oversee the project, as well as opportunities for apprentices to join the programme.
The programme will begin to role out in April, with additional services and staff vacancies popping up during the five-year duration of the programme.
Learn more about MMK Mind’s other Youth Services.
Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund