BURTON Albion Football Club and Burton Albion Community Trust are continuing their commitment to change, working closely with mental health charity Mind towards the Sport and Recreational Action Plan for mental health.
The Sport and Recreation Alliance alongside the Professional Players Federation and with support from the mental health charity Mind have created the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation, an area in which Burton Albion are always looking to improve.
The Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation sets out how sport can use its collective power to tackle issues with mental health and the stigma that surrounds it.
Alongside a number of player associations and NGBs who have already signed up, The Brewers have committed to taking positive steps to address and encourage people to be open about mental health issues. The Charter outlines actions that we, as a sector, can take to help make mental health a commonly-understood matter and to help those in need.
As a signatory of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation we are committed to taking action across the following six areas:
- Use our sport to promote good mental health and wellbeing
- Adopt good mental health policies and best practices
- Appoint ambassadors and role models
- Tackle discrimination on the grounds of mental health
- Support a pan-sport platform to develop and share resources and best practice
- Throughout all of this we will regularly monitor our performance
John Widdowson, Health & Inclusion Manager at Burton Albion Community Trust, said: “We’re delighted to be able to continue a close partnership with Burton Mind. In the light of Marvin Sordell’s story, it’s been great that we can come together as a football club to try and spread the message that 'it’s okay not to be okay'.
“By continuing the hard work that our staff put in to the projects that we deliver, we hope that the messages we are trying to get across can help to make people want to speak more openly about mental health issues, whether that be our players, staff or people that we engage with in the community.”
Click here to take a look at our Mental Health Charter.
Picture: Ken Builth (Burton Mind), Marvin Sordell (Burton Albion), John Widdowson (Burton Albion Community Trust)