
Benefits for the organisations
- Access to world-class knowledge, research, and expertise in academia
- Ability to reach new audiences e.g. increased community engagement, generate significant cultural and economic outcomes, schools across the region
- Enhanced social, cultural and economic outcomes through reaching 29 schools and over 2200 children and young people across the region
- Increased the number of students working on Tackling the Blues to offer the programme to more schools
Benefits to higher education institutions
- Increased institutional KE activity, research and impact
- Working collaboratively with local community sports and arts organisations to deliver a place-based programme
- Increased opportunities for research and dissemination
- Enhanced understanding of student mental health and how mental health work-related learning can impact students’ mental health
- Working collaboratively and sharing expertise within the institution across departments and faculties
Benefits to higher education students
- Enhanced student experience and increased opportunities to secure highly skilled work upon graduation
- Experience of working collaboratively with diverse sports and arts organisations on a real-world sport and arts mental health programme with children and young people
- Improved internal collaborations and working with institutional academic and support staff
- Opportunities to engage with research and dissemination for their own research projects and other curricular work
- Engaging with various stakeholders, including school staff, curators, community sports coaches, programme coordinators, research staff, academics, marketing and communications teams
- Increased mental health literacy and coping strategies to manage their own mental health and wellbeing during their time as students and beyond
- Development of skills to use sport and art-based approaches to address mental health concerns with the wider community
Benefits to children and young people, schools and their communities
- More schools offering the Tackling the Blues programme, tailored to identified mental health concerns and need
- New approaches to community and school-based programmes to address mental health through sport and the arts
- Improved children and young people’s mental health literacy and knowledge of where to seek further support when needed
- Enhancing teacher’s mental health literacy and knowledge of referral systems
- Increased number of student mentors delivering and facilitating each session to provide more support
- Support for schools in their whole school approach to mental health
- Improved engagement with the local community
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.





