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Edge Hill University

Edge Hill University has been providing higher education since 1885, with a mission to create opportunity from knowledge. It is one of the few universities to have held the UK University of the Year title, awarded by Times Higher Education and most recently, Modern University of the Year in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022.

The impact and quality of research undertaken on the programme was also recognised in the University’s Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism submission to the Research Excellence Framework 2021. The impact of Edge Hill’s sport and mental health research, which included Tackling the Blues, was independently rated as ‘world leading’. This work has been used by a wide range of non-academic beneficiaries, including government policy makers, schools and other community partners to benefit the mental health of children and young people.

The University worked with EitC and Tate Liverpool to provide undergraduate and postgraduate students with an opportunity to become a Tackling the Blues Mentor. Students were also engaged indirectly through various project-specific events and training organised across the University during the funding period.

A research team from the University led the monitoring and evaluation of Tackling Blues, evidencing the impact on the student experience, employability and transition to highly skilled work, and student health wellbeing. The impact of the project on partners, and mental health of school-aged children and young people, was also explored.

Visit the Edge Hill University website here. 


Everton in the Community

EitC is one of the UK’s top sporting charities and is firmly established on the world stage of community sports development. As the Club’s official charity, it is considered one of the Premier League’s leading community schemes due to the quality and reach of its various programmes. Since 1988, Everton in the Community has been at the forefront of social intervention across Merseyside.

Through its 240+ dedicated full-time staff and 160+ volunteers, the charity offers more than 40 programmes covering a range of social issues including health, employability, anti-social behaviour, crime, education, dementia, poverty, youth engagement, youth justice and disability. Operating seven days a week, 365 days a year, EitC supports the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of local communities, and the charity aims to instil confidence in others by creating life-changing opportunities. Thousands of people have already benefited from the magnificent work they do.

The charity’s work is vast and includes providing routes into education, training and employment, steering young people away from crime and anti-social behaviour and engaging children and adults, regardless of ability, in physical activity. In addition to helping individuals, EitC helps other charitable groups improve the lives of local people.

EitC joined TtB as the first delivery partner in 2015 and offers a range of interactive and engaging activities, with young people participating in tailored educational and peer-led activities which focus on conditions associated with mental illness. Weekly sport and physical activity and classroom-based sessions include competitive and non-competitive activities which have been associated with positive behaviour change among those experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, mental illness.

Visit the Everton in the Community website here. 


Tate Liverpool

Tate’s vision is to serve as artistically adventurous and culturally inclusive art museums for the UK and the world. This vision is delivered through activities in four Tate galleries across the UK, digital platforms and collaborations with national and international partners.

Tate Liverpool is an international gallery, based in a regional centre with two clear pillars of presenting art. The first is the Tate collection, which is the northern home for the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art. The second is Tate’s established reputation for bold exhibitions and bringing new perspectives to bear to excite regular visitors and attract new ones from all over the world.

Tate believes art is for everyone and Tate Liverpool remains as relevant now as at its conception 34 years ago; exchanging ideas, with deep roots in the city and facing both home-grown and global communities.

Tate Liverpool’s innovative learning programme champions creative practice and involves over 60,000 direct participants each year.  The gallery works in collaboration with other arts organisations, charities, educational institutions and businesses across the city to demonstrate the positive impact art and creativity can have on people’s lives.

Tate Liverpool joined the Tackling the Blues partnership in 2020 to develop a new arts-based offer as part of the programme. Tate Liverpool trains and support mentors in harnessing their creativity to help children and young people learn a language that will enable them to recognise issues and express them constructively; providing tools to help them find strategies and to speak out and seek help when they need it. The gallery also support mentors to make use of Tate’s world class art collection, encouraging children and young people to use artworks and artists’ creative practices as resources for their own expression and reflections.

Visit the Tate Liverpool website here. 


Chasing the Stigma

Chasing the Stigma is a national mental health charity on a mission to normalise and humanise conversations about mental health, eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness and enable everyone in the UK to access clear pathways to support whenever and wherever they need it

Chasing the Stigma do this through the Hub of Hope app and website – now the nation’s go-to mental health signposting tool enabling users to find and connect with more than 7,000 specialist services across the UK – and by creating true environments of understanding via our Ambassadors of Hope training programmes and national lobbying activities. Chasing the Stigma has provided Ambassador of Hope mental health literacy training for over 1400 EHU students.

Visit the Chasing the Stigma website here. 


Click here to read more about the Tackling the Blues team

Who are the Stakeholders?

Tackling the Blues

Tackling the Blues, an award-winning sport and arts-based education programme targeting young people aged 6-16 who are experiencing, or are at risk of, developing mental illness.