Everton FC Archives - Tackling the Blues

Andy Smith, Everton FC, Everton in the Community, Mental Health, Sport and Physical Activity, Tackling the Blues, Tate Liverpool

USM Tackling the Blues campaign shortlisted for UK Content Awards

Theo Walcott, wearing his Everton FC kit, crouches down next to a boy and a girl from Linacre Primary School who wear light green jumpers. — Everton FC’s Theo Walcott chats to children from Linacre Primary School.

A children’s mental health awareness campaign which saw pupils’ drawings of their Blues heroes take centre stage at a Goodison Park matchday has been shortlisted for a national award.

The ‘USM Supports Tackling the Blues’ campaign has been shortlisted in the ‘Integrated Content Campaign of the Year’ category in the 2020 UK Content Awards.

As part of USM’s wider marketing campaign #unlockthepotential, USM invited children from Linacre Primary School in Bootle to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience and enabled them to see their portraits of Everton first-team players replace all in-game player graphics at the Blues’ Premier League fixture with Newcastle United in January.

A child's drawing, in felt tip, of Fabian Delph in his Everton kit. — Fabian Delph

The children’s drawings appeared on stadium screens, in the matchday programme and across Everton’s official matchday social media and website output at the match. The images trended on social media and gained international media coverage with fans both at the stadium and online praising the children’s drawings and the partnership work between Everton and Edge Hill University on the ground-breaking Tackling the Blues programme.

Linacre Primary is one of a number of schools taking part in the ‘Tackling the Blues’ programme, delivered jointly by Everton in the Community and Edge Hill University, and funded by the Premier League.

The initiative aims to teach young people strategies for good mental and physical health, promote emotional literacy and improve self-esteem and confidence through a range of physical and class-based activities.

Drawing portraits is just one of the ways that children are encouraged to explore emotions, behaviours and practise peer support.

Club partner USM invited the Linacre pupils to Everton’s training ground, USM Finch Farm, for the initial drawing session – where they were surprised by Club captain Seamus Coleman, midfielders Fabian Delph and Theo Walcott, and goalkeeper Jonas Lossl, who sat for their portraits in person and took part in a Q&A with the children on the themes of acceptance, self-esteem, diversity and respect.

Professor Andy Smith from Edge Hill University, who alongside Everton in the Community designs and delivers the Tackling the Blues Programme, said: “To see this awareness-raising activity, informed by our research, recognised with a shortlisting for a national award is excellent news following the additional funding we have received from the Office for Students and Research England to expand the Tackling the Blues project over the next two years, and helps strengthen our work in this important area.

“Raising awareness of the importance of children’s mental health, and ensuring that children have access to the right tools they need to promote positive mental health is even more important now given the impacts of Covid-19 on school-based mental health, and the impact it is having on the inequalities which characterise the families and communities in which children live.”

The ‘USM Supports Tackling the Blues’ campaign will compete against Flow Creative & The Mental Health Foundation – Mental Health Awareness Week Campaign, Hill+Knowlton Strategies & Smart Energy GB – The Missing Piece, Impression & Harvey Water Softeners – Making Water Work Harder, International SOS – COVID-19 Insight and Intelligence Campaign and The Think Tank – Asendia 7 Destinations Campaign. The winner will be announced on 20 October 2020.

The ‘USM Tackling The Blues’ matchday activity has also been shortlisted for Best Fan Engagement Campaign at the 2020 Sport Business Awards, the winner of which is announced in December.

Andy Smith, Bootle, Everton FC, Everton in the Community, Linacre Primary School, Mental Health, Premier League, Sport and Physical Activity, Sports Business Awards, Tackling the Blues, The Office for Students and Research in England, Theo Walcott

Edge Hill and Everton mental health partnership shortlisted for major award

An Edge Hill and Everton FC mental
health partnership programme has been shortlisted in the 2020 Sports Business
Awards.

Tackling
the Blues, which aims to improve the mental health of young people aged 6-16
through sport, is in the running in the Best Fan Engagement category at the
national awards.

The project which caught the judges’
eyes saw children from Linacre Primary School in Bootle create portraits of
Everton first team players which were then displayed as in-game player graphics
at one of the Blues’ Premier League fixtures in January, in the match-day
programme and across the team’s official social media and website.

The drawings trended on social media
and gained international media coverage with fans praising the children’s
drawings and the work of Tackling the Blues.

Professor Andy
Smith, Tackling the Blues programme lead for Edge Hill University, said: “We are extremely pleased to hear the programme has
been shortlisted for an award.

“The feedback we received from the school pupils involved, and of course
fans, was excellent.

“We regularly encourage participants on Tackling the Blues to find
creative ways of expressing their thoughts and experiences of mental health,
and to explore their emotions and feelings in positive ways by engaging in peer
support.

A child's drawing, in felt tip, of Jonas Lossl, in his kit. — Jonas Lossl

“The pictures and portraits drawn by the young people, supported so well
by the Everton players, really captured the imaginations of fans.

“The shortlisting is testimony to how academic research, and
longstanding partnerships between ourselves and Everton in the Community, can
be used to positively engage people in important matters such as mental health.”

Tackling the Blues
is delivered jointly by Edge Hill University and Everton FC’s official charity,
Everton
in the Community (EitC), with support from club partner USM and funding from
the Premier League.

The initiative,
delivered with The Department of Sport and Physical Activity, aims to teach
young people strategies for good mental and physical health, promote emotional
literacy and improve self-esteem and confidence.

To date it has
engaged with nearly 1,000 young people weekly in primary schools, secondary
schools and community groups, and recently won a cash injection from The Office
for Students and Research England in recognition of the vital impact it has on
the Edge Hill student experience.

On this occasion, the
Bootle schoolchildren enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience when they visited
Everton’s USM Finch Farm training ground thanks to a surprise visit by club
captain Seamus Coleman, midfielders Fabian Delph and Theo Walcott and
goalkeeper Jonas Lossl.

The players sat for
their portraits and took part in a Q&A on themes including acceptance,
self-esteem, diversity and respect.

The Everton players sit in a row in front of a window facing the camera and the backs of some of the children's heads can be seen out of focus in the foreground. — Everton FC players Jonas Lossl, Fabian Delph, Seamus Coleman and Theo Walcott take part in a Q&A with schoolchildren from Bootle.

Everton FC and EitC have been nominated
in five categories in total, more than any other football finalist in this
year’s awards, with recognition for community impact, sports diversity and the professional
services team.

Other nominees include Cricket World
Cup 2019, golf’s The Open Championship, Premiership Rugby, Jockey Club
Services, The Royal British Legion and a small number of other Premier League
clubs.

The winners of the 2020 Sports Business
Awards will be announced at a ceremony in London in December.

Edge Hill’s interdisciplinary MSc
in Sport, Physical Activity and Mental Health, delivered in association
with Everton in the Community, offers a unique opportunity to undertake
cutting-edge, impact-focused and policy-relevant teaching and research related
to health and wellbeing in sport, physical activity and related sectors.

Andy Smith, Everton FC, Everton in the Community, funding boost, General, Mental Health, Office for Students, Research England, Sport and Physical Activity, Tackling the Blues, Tate Liverpool

Funding boost for University’s mental health activities with Everton and Tate

Schoolchildren raise their arms in the air and cheer while an Edge Hill University student waves a trophy. — Schoolchildren celebrate their achievements at a Tackling the Blues event hosted by Edge Hill.

A sport, art and education-based mental health awareness programme developed by Edge Hill University and Everton in the Community has been awarded half a million pounds in recognition of the vital impact it has on the student experience.

The £527k funding boost will ensure the University can expand its successful collaborations with Everton in the Community and further grow arts and wellbeing activities with Tate Liverpool.

The Office for Students and Research England unveiled the successful bids today (20th April) and Edge Hill has received the award for demonstrating the benefits the Tackling the Blues project brings to students, graduates and external partners through involvement in knowledge exchange activities.

HRH Prince William chats to schoolchildren on a recent visit to a Tackling the Blues programme.

Dr Helen O’Keeffe, Associate Dean for Edge Hill’s Faculty of Education, said: “It’s fantastic news that the Office for Students and Research England sees our work as an example of best practice across the higher education sector.

“The Tackling the Blues project not only makes an important contribution to the student experience, employability, knowledge exchange and research, but it also makes a vital difference to the children and families we work with in the Liverpool city region that suffer from some of the poorest health and wellbeing in the country.”

The award-winning Tackling the Blues targets young people aged 6-16 who are experiencing, or are at risk of developing, mental illness, and has already made a significant difference to people’s lives with participants feeling more confident and less anxious, and showing improved literacy and emotional intelligence skills.

Andy Smith, Professor of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill, said: “We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Everton in the Community, the charitable arm of Everton Football Club, and more recently with Tate Liverpool, and both partners are hugely committed to this programme.

“The funding will allow us to expand our activities with them and grow the arts and wellbeing activities. Crucially, it will enable us to increase students’ engagement in our research and knowledge exchange activities and provide them with unique opportunities to work with our partners to positively impact the lives of our communities.”

Everton in the Community’s Tackling the Blues Coordinator Jack Mulineux said: “To be one of the recipients of this funding is great news and it will allow us to continue to work with our long-standing partner Edge Hill University but also create a new and exciting opportunity to work with Tate Liverpool.

“Not only will this enhance our reach but it will also contribute to the expansion of our provision which will continue to be aligned with improving health-related outcomes using innovative practices such as the arts to promote wellbeing.”

Director of Tate Liverpool Helen Legg added: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to deepen our partnership with Edge Hill University and extend our work on children’s mental health. It’s a transformative opportunity and we are confident that art and creative activity can play a valuable role in improving an individual’s mental health and build their emotional intelligence.”

Since its launch in 2013, Tackling the Blues has engaged more than 1,000 young people weekly in primary schools, secondary schools and community groups.

Andy Smith, Bootle, Edge Hill University, Everton FC, Everton in the Community, Fabian Delph, General, Goodison Park, Jonas Lossl, Linacre Primary School, match day, Mental Health, Premier League, Seamus Coleman, Sport and Physical Activity, Tackling the Blues, Theo Walcott, Unlock the Potential, USM Finch Farm

Schoolchildren put Everton FC players in the picture to promote positive mental health

Children’s drawings to replace player matchday photographs at Goodison Park as USM training ground supports Edge Hill partnership programme Tackling the Blues

Theo Walcott, wearing his Everton FC jersey, smiles while talking to two schoolchildren. — Everton FC’s Theo Walcott chats to children from Linacre Primary School.

Portraits of Everton FC players created by schoolchildren will be shown on stadium screens for the Blues’ home game against Newcastle tomorrow, Tuesday 21 January – helping to raise awareness of the importance of positive mental health among young people.

Club partner
USM invited Year 4 pupils from Linacre Primary School in Bootle to visit
Everton’s USM Finch Farm training ground to take part in a drawing session,
with their player portraits set to make a very special appearance at Goodison
Park on Tuesday night.

The portraits
will replace the in-match player graphics for the Premier League encounter with
Newcastle on the stadium screens for the team announcement and substitutions.
They will also be used in the matchday programme and, away from the ground, the
images will be visible across Everton’s official matchday social media and
website output.

A child's drawing of Fabian Delph — Fabian Delph

The activity is part of USM’s Unlock the Potential campaign and in support of Everton in the Community and Edge Hill University’s award-winning Tackling the Blues programme.

Linacre Primary School is one of a number of schools participating in Tackling the Blues, which aims to teach young people strategies for good mental and physical health, promote emotional literacy and improve self-esteem and confidence. The programme has engaged with more than 850 young people aged six to 16 years old in the last three years.

Delivered collaboratively by Everton in the Community and Edge Hill University, and funded by The Premier League, Tackling the Blues is co-designed and developed with young people, student mentors and education workers who act as project collaborators, to help recruit participants and deliver peer mentor workshops.

Professor Andy Smith, from Edge Hill University, said: “We are delighted that the benefits of the activities which we have designed with young people who engage in the Tackling the Blues programme are being recognised in this way.

“Helping young people to understand the importance of their mental health, how and where to seek help, and to provide activities which impact their lives positively is an important part of our longstanding partnership with Everton in the Community.

“We are especially grateful to the players, USM and everyone at the football club, for their continued support of Tackling the Blues and our wider research on using sport for mental health promotion.”

Drawing portraits
is just one of the ways that participants are encouraged to explore emotions,
behaviours and reactions and gain an understanding of the things we can all do
to support each other.

Everton FC players Jonas Lossl, Fabian Delph, Seamus Coleman and Theo Walcott sit on chairs in a row holding up the children's drawings of them. — Everton FC players Jonas Lossl, Fabian Delph, Seamus Coleman and Theo Walcott take part in a Q&A with schoolchildren from Bootle.

A child's drawing of Jonas Lossl. — Jonas Lossl

During the drawing session, the Linacre pupils were surprised by a visit from first team stars Fabian Delph, Theo Walcott, Seamus Coleman and Jonas Lossl – who came to sit for their portraits in person.

The players
then tried their hand at their own drawings before taking part in a Q&A
with the children on topics including acceptance, self-esteem, diversity and
respect.

A video of the feel-good visit is being shared by the Club on Blue Monday (January 20) – supposedly ‘the most depressing day of the year.’

The pupils have
also been invited to the game against Newcastle to see their drawings come to
life across Goodison Park.

Michael Salla, Director of Health and Sport at Everton in the Community added: “In England, between 9 and 13% of 5-15-year-olds reported having a mental health disorder, with older young people reporting higher rates of mental illness. Suicide is the biggest killer of schoolchildren each year, with 200 on average taking their own lives.

“It is fantastic to see USM showing their support for Tackling the Blues. Programmes like this are vital in providing young people with tools and strategies that they can use as they get older to maintain good mental and physical health.

“It is also about removing stigma around mental health and making it clear that it is important to talk about mental health at any age, to ask for help and support when you need it, and ensure that young people know where to find that support.

“The player portraits are a great way of sharing that message and I am sure that the children will be delighted when they see their drawings on the big screen.”