Our Future is Bright

@BarnsleyCollege and Barnsley Sixth Form College are joining forces with young people’s charity @Chilypep to make a brighter future for our community by donating the colour from the front of our new course guides to raise awareness of both mental health and mindfulness.

One in four people experience a mental health issue each year and 75% of mental illness starts before the age of 18*. Whilst there is growing awareness of the importance of wellbeing and the majority of young people are happy with their lives, there will be times when life is not so easy.

We have donated our colour to encourage you to donate your cheerful colour too. We can brighten up someone else’s day by simple actions such as checking in on a neighbour, calling a relative for a chat or asking, “are you ok?” All small acts of kindness can make a huge difference to a person’s mental wellbeing.

Chilypep’s purpose is to promote the rights, wellbeing and opportunities of all young people across South Yorkshire. The charity work with young people to campaign around issues that affect them; and work with organisations, schools, community services and local authorities to ensure that young people’s rights are protected and that their best interests are served.

Emma Manser, Participation Project Worker at Chilypep, said: “At Chilypep we put the children and young people we work for at the heart of everything we do. We have had the privilege to work with staff and students from Barnsley College over the last five years thanks to our funding from Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group.

“In this time, we have established a Peer Mentoring Programme, ran hundreds of Wellbeing Sessions and Workshops for students and worked with Barnsley Sixth Form College to open GAINSpace, a specific wellbeing room. Staff members have also had the opportunity to take part in mental health first aid training with us, so they are better able to support the needs of students.

“Through our OASIS group, young people from Barnsley have had their voices heard around changes they want to see made in relation to mental health awareness and support services for young people in the town. Chilypep is currently working on opening a Wellbeing Hub in Barnsley town centre which will provide a safe space for young people to drop in and access support and youth led sessions. We believe mental health is something that should be talked about and that all young people should have access to the right support for their mental health whenever they need it.”

Yiannis Koursis, Principal and Chief Executive at Barnsley College, added: “We believe that good health and wellbeing is essential for anyone to achieve their goals. We have a dedicated and award-winning team of people who make sure that students are supported to lead healthy and happy lives.

“Our aim is to make a brighter future for our community. We have taken a small step by donating the colour from the front cover of our course guides to raise awareness of both mental health and mindfulness. Making you happy and inspiring you to be the best you can be is our top priority.”

To encourage mindfulness, we’re running a competition where you can be in with the chance of winning some mindfulness goodies! All you have to do is colour in our course guide covers using pens, pencils or paint. Take a picture and upload to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or send it to [email protected] . The deadline for entries is Friday 9 April 2021.