Guardian Ballers - "Helping Hands" Project

Aim: Empower us to improve youth mental health by providing sport-wellbeing interventions and volunteering experiences at local charities

Have you or someone you know or love ever journeyed through a mental health challenge? 

"In 2023, about 1 in 5 children and young people aged 8 to 25 years had a probable mental disorder." (NHS Digital, 2023)- it’s common! 

However, mental health support when you’re not in crisis, or wellbeing education delivered in a fun and holistic “serving-others” way is not so common.  

That’s why we exist for young people and their communities!
Through fun and engaging sporting activities we provide a mental and emotional education for young people, or to teach them how support those they know and love.
And that’s why this “Helping Hands” project will help us fund our ‘BETTER experiences’ that give young people the opportunity to volunteer with us at community-focused charities and be impacted by Sport-Wellbeing sessions.

Who are we? 

Guardian Ballers is a mental and emotional wellbeing community-interest organisation in Coventry and Warwickshire that is empowering young people aged 10-25 through Basketball (BALL) and Educational (BE) sessions, giving them the confidence to engage in practical volunteering so they can make their community BETTER!  

Since we were founded in partnership with Coventry & Warwickshire Mind in 2021, we have been delivering sessions in community settings and schools, developing young leaders through “RE-PRESENT” programmes and providing a ‘first contact point’ of mental and emotional wellbeing education for thousands of young people. Over this period, we have reached, on average, 1607 young people each year, 85% of whom reported that the Guardian Ballers journey positively impacting their Mental and Emotional wellbeing and physical activity levels! 

We want to see generations of mentally healthy ‘Guardian Ballers’ who mature and choose to serve their community and the world around them!
 

 Why are we crowdfunding?  

This “Helping Hands” Project funding will enable us to offer BETTER Experiences and associated Mental Health and Sporting Interventions to young people who are referred to and journeying with us, boosting their self-esteem as they practically add value to society. We will facilitate these volunteering experiences, with additional Sport-Wellbeing sessions, to young people who have been identified as having acute or long-standing low level mental or emotional challenges (such as dealing with anxiety, depression, low confidence, overcoming interactions with the criminal justice system). 

Whilst we were deeply encouraged this year to be crowned as the “Not-for-Profit Champion” at the 2025 Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce Awards, such experiences have contrasted with a frequency of ‘alarm bells’ that youth mental health is declining, through referrals and feedback that we are encountering.  

We have grown the variety and range of support we are able to offer young people, particularly through launching hosted and targeted provision at our new “Guardian Ballers HQ”. Such provision has resulted in parents, social workers, partners and carers submitting requests for urgent and critical wellbeing support for their young people. They are needing us to provide a “helping hand”.  

These funds will help us fulfil the requests for support that we have already received. 

We are passionate about providing our community programmes to those in need at low or no cost so there are no barriers.   

Can you help us to continue to impact lives as we tackle the 'silent mental health pandemic' that’s not over yet?  

How is money donated “investing in impact”? 

We will be able to deliver our programmes to targeted young people who have been identified as having greatest mental, emotional and aspirational needs (e.g. low esteem, social isolation). 

We will be able to take young people to support charities and other community organisations through volunteering ‘BETTER Experiences’. These 'BETTER experiences' boost the young people’s self-esteem, mood and aspirations as well as helping the local charities’ workforce with extra people-power! It’s like a “special sauce” that develops young citizens that practically transform the world around them! 

We will be able to develop our programmes that grow young and adult leaders through their voluntary support, further equipping and upskilling volunteer superstars! 

If you have connections with an organisation who can match-fund what is donated, please let us know by emailing [email protected], so it can propel us forwards in our campaign! 

Overcoming Barriers: We are tackling the disproportions in access to mental health, volunteering and sporting activities by focusing delivery (not exclusively, but intentionally) on: Females, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and individuals from Lower Socio-Economic backgrounds. We want everyone to live a happy and healthy life! 

Sow one seed: lasting impact 

£25 could sponsor three young people to attend one session at a BETTER experience. 

£50 could pay the costs of hiring a mini-bus to take a cohort on a BETTER experience.  

£100 could help us purchase a set of wellbeing resources to be used in BE sessions for a cohort of ten young people. 

£250 could pay for a volunteer to be DBS-checked, trained, equipped and to join us to be actively assisting ‘on the ground’ with young people. 

£2,000 could fund a whole community outreach event in a deprived community, in partnership with other local charities.
[Contact us to receive our ‘Invest in impact’ list of how different levels of donations can fund specific projects and purposes]

Whichever financial-seed you sow, we will work towards generating lasting impact on a young person or a community! 

Be part of something special 

We have witnessed the powerful impact of our programmes over the last 4 years and we want to reach more young people and their communities! 

Can you practically-empower us to reach wider and deepen our impact? 

Here are four ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality... 

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our campaign success! No pledge is too small and definitely not too big! 

2. Spread the word! Share our project on your social media platforms, or share the link via phone messages and ask the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get! 

3. Offer rewards! If you are a local/national business or person, you can donate products or services that we can offer as rewards to our supporters. Use the 'Contact Project' button at the top of our page or email us on [email protected] to let us know about your offer.
These could include offering Professional Food Hamper, Car Servicing, Personal Training Sessions, free use of a premises or whatever you have as a gift/privilege to share. Any offers are welcome!  

4. Fundraise for us! If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'Contact Project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. We’ll cheer you on and support  however we can! 

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 10th August 2025 at 10:00pm