Introducing our Mental Health Programme.

As per our earlier updates, Reimagine Youth is developing a Mental Health Programme. This programme aims to support and improve the mental health of children and young people. This is an umbrella programme, under which we hope to develop a variety of projects with different partners. This is part of SKIP’s new modus operandi, where we are establishing a research base prior to linking with community partners.

The initial phase of this programme has been to research current areas of interest, to identify those areas that could be enhanced from our input. Following an initial literature search, a list of potential topics was created. The Research Team, led by Dr Eleanor Morris and Miss Ayomide Adetosoye, narrowed this down to five key areas for further exploration: social media, sleep, teenage pregnancy, abuse and neurodivergence. These topics were selected as they featured prominently in the literature and there was interest in seeing how they integrated into the wider Global Health picture. The Team also revisited the work of the previous SKIP Emotional Wellbeing project, developed by Dr Natalie Cook prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After conducting literature reviews and competitor analyses, the Research Team presented their work to the Board of Trustees in April 2024. In this meeting, each topic was discussed in detail, including assessing which other organisations were already working in the field, and what SKIP may be able to offer. For example, neurodivergence is still largely undiagnosed in many communities and hence it could be challenging for Reimagine Youth to approach this topic at present.

The outcome of this meeting was that Reimagine Youth was to revive the former Emotional Wellbeing intervention, which used classroom-based toolkits to deliver teaching to children, but with the flexibility to include some of the new research topics depending on community needs. For example, if a partner felt that sleep and mental health was a need in their community, then we could adapt our resources to account for this. We have chosen this approach because we are seeking to form long-standing partnerships, and our projects are not geographically bound. Hence, there is a need to maintain some flexibility around content.

We have now entered the next stage- project development, where we have begun to reach out to potential partners to see how our classroom-based interventions can be delivered on the ground. Needs Assessments have been completed by The Green Trust (based in The Gambia) and Mydia-Tz (based in Tanzania) and we are now seeking to solidify our working relationships with Memoranda of Understanding. Internally, we are in the process of evaluating our current resources to personalise them based on the needs of the communities within which we are aiming to work. Tools for monitoring and evaluation are also being developed. Our aim is to have a pilot project up-and-running within the next 6 months, which will help to inform further charity growth.

Thank you for reading, we will continue to provide updates as the Mental Health Programme develops,

Ayomide Adetosoye – Mental Health Programme Lead

Dr Amelia Ram – Trustee Contact for the Project Development Team