Launched in 2015, Tackling the Blues (TtB) is a unique prevention and early intervention sport and arts-based mental health education programme delivered in partnership between Edge Hill University, Tate Liverpool and Everton in the Community (EitC), the official charity of Everton Football Club.
Tackling the Blues is delivered to 6-16-year-olds attending schools in the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Between September 2020 and September 2022, the project was funded by the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England with support from the Premier League Charitable Fund.
The programme is coproduced, delivered and evaluated with children and young people, and their schools, and is underpinned by academic research on the links between participation in sport and the arts and improved mental health and education among children and young people.
TtB supports children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with, or identified as at risk of developing, mental illness and addresses the complex social determinants and inequalities associated with mental health and illness through engagement with sport and the arts. It also seeks to improve mental health literacy among children and young people. The programme is multi-award winning, and most recently it has been awarded the Tackling Health Inequalities Award at the North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards 2022 and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Award at the Educate North Awards 2022.
