Newham’s HeadStart helping the borough’s youngsters with their mental health
Government officials and policy makers and the Big Lottery Fund paid a two day visit to an innovative mental health programme in east London to find out how it is supporting young people to become more resilient.
HeadStart Newham provides a range of activities in schools, online, in the community and for parents, from social action projects, to creative and sports activities, all with the aim of preventing mental health problems from becoming more serious.
The initiative has been running since 2016 and is delivered in partnership with the London Borough of Newham and funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund.
Since then it has worked with and supported more than 1,400 young people and and 160 parents.
Caroline Prudames and Daniela D’Urso, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Team leads from the Department of Education alongside paid a visit to three schools in the borough to see the HeadStart programme in action. Councillor Julianne Marriott, Newham’s Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Young People joined the officials for part of their tour.
The delegation’s first stop was Lister Community School in Plaistow, E13, where they met groups of students and staff who explained the impact the programme was having in their school and how it was helping with exam stress.
At Curwen Primary School also located in Plaistow they met pupils who have taken part in HeadStart BounceBack, which supports young people to have tolerance of others, make the correct choices and reflect on their actions and feelings, allowing them to ‘bounce back’ from the everyday challenges in life.