February 13, 2019

With conventional services overstretched, teenagers in the Cumbria coastal town of Maryport teamed up to assist their peers. Frustrated by the waiting times for mental health services,  they formed a group, We Will, to campaign for more understanding and skilled support for young people suffering mental ill health.
The group of teens knew they would need help to plan and organise their campaign, so a year ago they approached Kate Whitmarsh, development worker at the community group Ewanrigg Big Local, which has a mandate to grow grassroots initiatives proposed by anyone resident in the area.

Kate encouraged the We Will teenagers to get trained up in the skills required to offer their peer group emotional support without feeling scared or overwhelmed, themselves. She has mentored them as they embarked on lobbying their MP, making their own eloquent film, persuading Maryport businesses to display mental health awareness posters, doing media interviews – and finally, plucking up the courage to approach their schools’ senior leadership teams to take action.

The full story has been featured in the Guardian on Tuesday 12 February 2019: Follow this link for full details: https://t.co/VkQZbgPWIJ?amp=1