The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) Young Leaders is an innovative model that enables young people to work alongside us to address mental health and emotional wellbeing on a national level.
It is run in partnership with Leaders Unlocked, a non-profit social enterprise that works nationally to amplify the voice and experiences of young people to improve research, policy, provision and strategic decision-making.
“Being a young leader means being a guiding light in the darkness, helping others find strength and healing within themselves.” – William, MHF Young Leader
The MHF Young Leaders project enables young people to shape our work across communication, policy, research and some strategic development. By working in this way we can ensure our work reflects the diverse realities of young people across varying systems and in all stages of development and delivery.
“Mental health is a significant issue in society, and I am dedicated to harnessing my experience and passion to drive positive change and support individuals in need.”
– Jayden, MHF Young Leader
Who are the MHF Young Leaders?
The project started off as a pilot in 2019, focusing on integrating the voice and experiences of young people into how MHF design and deliver their work.
The partnership is now in it's sixth year. Over this time, it has successfully involved over 190 young people as Young Leaders.
The current cohort of Young Leaders are a dedicated and talented group of 30 13-25 year-old young people. They're from across the UK, with members from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The lived experience of the group includes living with long-term health conditions, experiencing discrimination or racism, being care-experienced, living in a rural area, experience of vulnerable family circumstances, economic hardship, and being LGBTQ+.
These wide-ranging experiences strengthen the perspectives that inform our work across research, communications and policy.
How do the Young Leaders work together with MHF?
The Young Leaders come together for co-design sessions to explore experiences, challenges, and importantly, solutions and recommendations for the key issues we are seeking to understand.
The Young Leaders also lead peer research to gather the insights and experiences of other young people across the country on these issues.
“I feel like I’ve gained a sense of purpose for a lot of my personal mental health experiences, a way to utilise them and turning my own past and present struggles into useful knowledge that can help others who are going through something similar.” - Hadrien, MHF Young Leader
The impact of the MHF Young Leaders on our work
The MHF Young Leaders influence work across the whole organisation. Some of the key areas of work that they have co-produced and influenced:
- Communications: Unlock Loneliness campaign, Mind Over Mirror campaign, Healthy Relationships campaign, Mental Health Awareness Week (since 2019)
- Programmes: Shaping contextually appropriate BAM programme, SITUATE
- Research: COVID research, Gaming and Mental Health
- Policy: Loneliness policy recommendations, Body Image policy recommendations
- MHF strategic development: A group of Young Leaders formed an interview panel for the Mental Health Foundation's Board of Trustees. As part of this process, one of the young leaders, Huma, was selected to become a member of the Board.