Mental Health Ambassadors - Bloom Roadshows June & July 2019

Bloom is a programme that has been developed for 14-18 year olds that can be delivered in school or college to support young people’s resilience and give them a toolkit through stressful transition times (such as exams, looking at next steps, juggling time or managing studies). The link between resilience and mental health is a strong one where evidence demonstrates that resilience can be a protective factor however it is hard to know how to be resilient and this programme addresses this.

This roadshow was for Lloyds bank employees who have fundraised over 9 million pounds to support Bloom and continuing to fundraise. The event introduced the programme but they wanted to hear from Lois and Zara why and how this programme would benefit their peers and what they thought about why mental health needs to be discussed in schools and colleges. Neither student had spoken before in front of that many people and although as a society we are beginning to discuss mental health more and more, it can still be a hard subject to discuss however, both young ladies did incredibly well. Not only that but they helped raise the profile of a programme that will support the mental health of young people and will go a long way to mobilising people to raise funds.

Lois has a bright future raising the profile and shouting the voice of young people and Zara ... she should be incredibly proud of how calm, articulate and impressive she was during the panel discussion…and her speaking skills were very impressive.

Head of Programme at Mental Health UK

*Please note Bloom aims to be available to all schools for free post the pilot in 2019/2020