Foundation participants tackle poor mental health via PL Inspires Challenge

Participants from Aston Villa Foundation have joined forces with more than 200 young people from across England and Wales to create a mentally healthy environment at their football clubs and in their communities, as part of this year’s Premier League Inspires Challenge.

The Challenge is one element of the Premier League Inspires programme, which clubs run on a weekly basis to support 11–18-year-olds who may be at risk of not reaching their potential as they move through the education system and early adulthood.

The Premier League Inspires Challenge empowers participants to take on a social action project and make a difference to the world around them.

This season, young people were tasked with raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing in their communities. Aston Villa Foundation representatives developed a project to work with the club, in particular with the players and coaches, using their experiences with mental health. Their idea was to form a mental health group, consisting of both players and students at the school, where they share their experiences of mental health to break the stigma and taboo. This would be delivered in schools and across wider foundation programmes.

Here’s a message from PL Inspires Officer, Tom Turley, about the programme: “PL Inspires at the Aston Villa Foundation has been dedicated to empowering young people by equipping them with essential life skills, that not only enhance their education but also prepare them for the challenges of life. Our mission is to inspire and support the next generation to reach their full potential and create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.”

Having come up with their mental health social action ideas, Aston Villa Foundation participants joined hundreds of young people at the Premier League Inspires Challenge celebration event at Wembley Stadium on 25 April, where they shared details of their activity with teams of their peers representing 45 clubs from across the Premier League and the English Football League.

This Challenge builds upon the Premier League’s ongoing Inside Matters mental health campaign and the League’s commitment as a signatory of the Mentally Healthy Football Declaration in 2020, which brought together all UK football organisations to help create a mentally healthy environment across the game.

Premier League Charitable Fund Chief Executive, Ruth Shaw OBE, said: “The Premier League and Premier League Charitable Fund are committed to working with professional football clubs, fans, players, communities, and partners to remind everyone that it is okay not to be okay and that it is vitally important that we keep up the conversation on mental health.

“Through the Premier League Inspires Challenge young people from across England and Wales have developed some brilliant ideas to create positive, mentally healthy environments at their football clubs and in school, at home and in their communities.”

Launched in 2019, Premier League Inspires creates life-changing opportunities for young people who have been identified by their schools as needing extra support to engage with activities, helping them to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes needed to succeed in life.

Using the power of football, the programme helps to prepare young people for further education and employment through a series of face-to-face mentoring sessions, workshops and social-action projects.

The Aston Villa Foundation began its Premier League Inspires delivery in 2021 and since then has supported 552 young people through over 1195 sessions in 17 local schools.

This season, 45 professional football club community organisations across the Premier League and English Football League are delivering Premier League Inspires sessions at their stadiums, in local schools and at alternative educational settings, with partnership support from the Professional Footballers’ Association.

More than 29,000 young people from across England and Wales have received more than 125,000 hours of targeted support through the programme to date.

To find out more, please visit premierleague.com.