Magna Vitae have been awarded a Together Fund grant of £4063 to deliver a programme supporting young people's mental health through physical activity. The GAME (Get Active Move Everyday) project will work with children and young people in the East Lindsey area who are experiencing poor mental health. The project will provide a variety of non traditional physical activities, such as Zumba and Boxercise, alongside time for peer support and social interaction.

The funding has been distributed by Active Lincolnshire, on behalf of Sport England. This project is one of many in the county benefitting from the Together Fund, which was set up to help to reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and support community groups and clubs working with those groups of people whose activity levels have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Magna Vitae is a not-for-profit charitable trust which was set up in 2015 to deliver Health, Leisure and Cultural services on behalf of East Lindsey District Council. For this project they are are working with a variety of partners to support the creation and delivery of the programme, including Louth CORE CAMHS Team based at Lincolnshire Partnership foundation NHS Trust (LPFT) mental health services, Early Help workers and the pastoral support workers in Louth area secondary schools as well as Shine Lincolnshire.

Many of the children and young people the programme will target have been unable to access activities due to barriers such as cost, lack of confidence and worries about attending on their own. The funding will provide coaches/facilitators to work with young people. Delivery staff will be given access to Mental Health Awareness training and will be supported to work with individuals who may be experiencing difficulties.

The sessions will provide a comfortable social environment where coaches can work with the young people to get to know them and then encourage them to take part in the activities on offer. They will work with the group to find out what they are interested in with a view to co-creating the future programme with participants, encouraging them to continue to access sessions beyond this 5-month project.

Find out more about the other projects that the Together Fund is supporting in Lincolnshire here.

photo top: courtesy of Sport England