Using a holistic approach to sport and wellbeing to improve mental health for local people and organisations.
by Nam Yang Brighton in Brighton, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom
The extra income would allow us to offer more outreach work and spread our instructors to more marginalised groups who would benefit from our workshops and sessions. It will also enable us to offer to transport to those who cannot afford to get to our sessions. As this can be tricky for low income households or people suffering with mental health issues.
James Grahame was our first junior student at Nam Yang starting at the age of 7 and he worked up through the club to become an instructor and national Kickboxing champion. Nam Yang was James' home from home. A consistent space he could be and feel what he needed to, surrounded by people who loved and supported him. When he came back from University, one of the first things he said to us was the last few years had been the hardest of his life, and one of those reasons was that he was not training at Nam Yang Brighton and did not have the every day support that a community club like ours can provide.
He has and always will be an integral part of our community. He embraced what we are about and the projects we run, such as our work with refugees, low-income families and people with disabilities. Helping us to create short films to promote our work.
As James suffered with mental health issues, we have offered to run specific sessions for those in need of support with mental health issues. We work with the NHS where we accept referrals from their Mental Health team supporting young people with their mental health and building them into our community. We would like to not only continue that work but also start working with other local support groups for people suffering with mental health. As this can affect so many people we feel the need now, particularly after Covid 19, is even more important.
All funds raised will go towards running projects and outreach work centred around mental health issues.