CLUBS across the country are marking World Mental Health Day today (Thursday, October 10) with Burton Albion Community Trust set to head out into the local community to raise awareness of its own programmes around this issue.
BACT are signatories of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation and 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
Club legend Aaron Webster, along with BACT staff, will be heading to partner secondary school De Ferrers Academy today, where he will conduct a Q&A with students around the topic of mental health in sports.
BACT will also be promoting their mental health programmes, including Building Better Opportunities sessions, which support employability and mental health via football therapy sessions.
The club will also be selling Burton Albion-coloured MIND badges, which help to raise funds and awareness of the work that MIND, the EFL’s official charity partner, do nationally and within our community - while the club itself will be supporting MIND's 'Goals Worth Talking About' campaign on social media.
“World Mental Health Day is an incredibly important day in our calendar, and that of football clubs and organisations up and down the country,” said Head of Community Matt Hancock.
“We hope that we can shine a light on the work that ourselves at BACT and MIND do within our community today, and we’re sure Aaron’s visit to De Ferrers will an important and enlightening one for the students taking part.”
You can find out more about Burton Albion Community Trust’s policies and projects around mental health by clicking here.
Make sure to follow @BurtonAlbionCT on Twitter as BACT post more on their mental health programmes and their plans on World Mental Health Day throughout the day.