The Harlequins Foundation are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the #iwill Fund.

The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £40 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities.

This will enable us to expand our METTLE project to work with young people in the borough of Hounslow to improve their mental resilience skills.

Through our METTLE programme we will support children and young people to better raise awareness of issues that effect their mental health while enabling them to develop key mental resilience skills.

We understand that powerful brands can make people listen, as well as change their behaviours and thinking.

Providing children and young people with access to the Harlequins’ brand, players and reach, the project will help empower them to tackle the issue, acting as peer advocates and challenge any stigma that remains around young people’s mental health.

Alongside a youth-led campaign, young people will develop their own skills and confidence by taking part in the METTLE programme which is designed to help children and young people to understand the concept of resilience and the factors that contribute towards its development.

Andy Carpenter, Foundation Manager, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this grant, that will enable us to support young people in delivering a meaningful social action project, that will have a positive impact in our heartland borough, Hounslow.

“Like many other organisations, we are concerned about the effect of lockdown on young people’s mental health, so having the opportunity to support young people to develop positive mental resilience techniques and deliver their own campaign, to raise awareness and challenge the stigma of mental health, is really exciting.”