Read about our first mental Health project working alongside The Dad Project
Slough Town FC Community CIC have proudly joined local mental health podcaster The Dad Project with an aim to help tackle barriers and stigmas around mens mental health issues and wellbeing. The Dad Project has a fantastic reputation in helping men and women see how mental health issues in men occur and how we can work together to try to provide a safe space . Together, we are bringing this essential work directly to the community .
Across the UK, one in every eight men experience a common mental health condition, while current statistics show that three out of four suicides are men . Around 43% of men report regularly experiencing negative mental health wellbeing.These numbers highlight the importance of creating accessible spaces for conversation, understanding and support. Entitled he ‘Changing Room’ the session is designed as a safe , welcoming space .
On the 27th November , Arbour PARK hosted a group session for men of the community and welcomed 4 guest speakers, each with their own story and life changing experience, and each wanting to share their experience to allow other men to see that mental health issues are a common occurrence and that , no matter what difficulties you face , there are so many options out there that can help with the issues we experience.
The evening was huge success with about 50 people attending the event. The stories told were amazing, unbelievable and truly heart breaking yet the positivity coming from each speaker galvanised a room full of men of all ages. We heard different tales about gambling addiction, the burden of debt, the difficulty in dealing with disability and the belief that you are solely responsible for your family and the pressures that that brings. Four amazing stories from four amazing men, yet each has found the courage to not only tackle their mental health issues but to want to share these with other men, all hoping that they can help guide men to a better place and showing that there is a way forward.
At the end of the evening , all of our hosts and speakers stayed and took the time out to talk to anyone who wanted to share their own experiences or just ask more about their thoughts and views away from everyone else. This is the first of what we hope to be a long standing partnership with The Dad Project.
This fantastically successful evening would never have happened without the help of Amit Amin and Narrop Jhooti from The Dad Project who worked tirelessly to make this event work. To see more of the wonderful work they do please have a look at some of there work here http://www.thedadprojectpodcast.org