Swansea City AFC Foundation deliver Creative Minds programme in partnership with EFL in the Community and the Professional Footballers’ Association
EFL in the Community and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) provided Swansea City AFC Foundation with the opportunity to take part in the Creative Minds programme to support children in looking after their mental health.
Creative Minds focuses on helping children to explore what mental wellbeing and mental health is, discovering how playing football and sport can impact mental health, and how they can relate that to their own lives.
The Foundation delivered Creative Minds in one of their Premier League Primary Stars schools, Ysgol Bro Tawe, who took part in the t-shirt design competition.
Pupils were tasked with designing a t-shirt which showcased what they had learned during the Creative Minds lesson, with lucky winner Maia having her design printed on t-shirts which were gifted to Ysgol Bro Tawe by EFL in the Community and the PFA.
“We’ve been trying to inspire the pupils to have positive conversations around their mental health,” said Ceri Phillips, education manager at Swansea City AFC Foundation.
“They’ve engaged in various workshops with us, covering steps and strategies which they may use to look after their mental health, that culminated with the pupils taking part in a competition to design a t-shirt for the school.
“The programme has also been endorsed by Swansea City and Wales forward Liam Cullen who created a video to introduce the sessions for us, which added great value to the messages we were delivering.
“It was a fantastic design which won the competition. Maia’s design was really inspiring, it embodied the school’s values and colours, the badge was represented on there along with some positive imagery.
“Maia included wording around supporting her own mental health, positive things such as getting a good night’s sleep, physical activity, eating healthy. It was a great design among all the brilliant designs from the whole class.
“Ysgol Bro Tawe have already mentioned to us that they might use those t-shirts for tournaments, sports days, festivals and events, which is great.”
The PFA is the union for all current and former footballers and scholars in the Premier League, the FA Women’s Super League and the English Football League.
Contributing substantial resources to the vast network of Club Community Organisations, the PFA is committed to supporting and celebrating the fantastic work players do to support their local communities.
“The Creative Minds programme is a fantastic opportunity for the PFA and the EFL in the Community to collaborate on a scheme focused on raising awareness of mental health in young people, something that has always been close to my heart,” said chair of the PFA, Omar Beckles.
“The project has evolved from my work with Leyton Orient, and it is wonderful to now see the concept expanded to benefit more people up and down the country.
"I would like to thank all the club charities taking part in our pilot scheme and look forward to working together with players to make a difference in young people’s wellbeing.”
The EFL’s director of community, Debbie Cook, added: “Using the power of the club badge, and the affinity that people have to their team, football club charities deliver a wide range of community initiatives focusing on raising people’s aspirations and quality of life.
“We want to create stronger, healthier communities and improve physical and mental health across all ages. Creative Minds is a fantastic vehicle for reaching children at a critical stage of their development.”