AoC Sport and Mind launch partnership to develop mental health projects in colleges
17th June 2020
AoC Sport and Mind are launching a partnership which aims to develop mental health and physical activity projects for colleges.
As part of Mind’s Sector Support programme, funded by Sport England and the National Lottery, AoC Sport will become one of their operational partners. The programme aims to equip more sport and physical activity providers with the skills to support and engage people with mental health problems in physical activity.
The partnership, which will run until the end of March 2021, will build on AoC Sport’s existing mental health activities, including their ‘Improving mental wellbeing in colleges through physical activity’ project. The findings from the project demonstrate that physical activity can support students in colleges to improve their mental wellbeing.
The average college has 185 students with disclosed mental health conditions. In addition to this 81% of colleges have reported having ‘significant numbers’ of students who have undisclosed mental health difficulties (Association of Colleges, 2017).
The partnership between the organisations will focus on two projects:
- Creating bespoke tutorial resources for the FE sector around mental health and the benefits of physical activity.
- Developing a Mental Health Ambassador programme as part of the AoC Sport Leadership Academy.