The club’s charity, City in the Community (CITC), has been delivering its City Thrive programme since 2020 as a response to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Sessions aim to harness the power of football to normalise stigmatised conversations around mental health subjects through a mixture of educational workshops and one-to-one mentoring.
Stokes and Kennedy sat down with a City Thrive participant as part of a Q&A session, which focused on how they cope with career setbacks from injuries and what helps them ignore any negativity thrown their way.
Stokes said: “I think programmes like this are massive.
“It is important to be vulnerable and everyone struggles sometimes. Be brave to open up and get the support you need and that’s why I think it is so important.”
From September 2021 to August 2022, CITC delivered City Thrive sessions at 36 venues across Greater Manchester.
Jason El-Kaleh, Community Outreach Officer said: “In recent years, the prevalence of mental health conditions within children and young people has risen considerably.
“With this in mind, the City Thrive programme looks to use football as an engagement tool to support conversations around mental health and wellbeing with young people across Greater Manchester.
“The support from the club and our players is fantastic and the examples that the players set whilst supporting sessions like today help us to create an inclusive and safe environment for our participants to talk about their emotions within our sessions.”
CITC’s City Thrive programme aims to promote positive mental health for young people up to the age of 25.
A dedicated team has developed a mental health curriculum, combining specially adapted football sessions with one-to-one mentoring and group workshops on mental health awareness to improve mental wellbeing.
As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, CITC also, spoke to their Young Leaders to get an understanding of what the campaign means to them.
They discussed coping strategies they use and any tips and advice they would give to someone feeling disconnected.
Place2Be focus for this year’s campaign is about connecting, with the theme being ‘Let’s Connect.’
The Young Leaders spoke about their coping strategies such as exercising, reading books, baking, taking a bath, enjoying nature and spending time with friends and family.
Developing on from spending time with loved ones, the Young Leaders told us that meaningful connections can be with people, pets or hobbies and can make them feel loved, wanted, safe, supported and motivated.
In addition, ahead of Children’s Mental Health Week, Manchester City Academy coach Jamie Carr completed his epic solo Atlantic row in aid of City Thrive.
To find out more about his challenge, and to donate, click here.
City in the Community moves with city youth to empower healthier lives through football.
To find out more, visit www.mancity.com/CITC or follow them on social media @CITCmancity.
