SAFC stars help young people tackle poor mental health in Premier League Inspires Challenge

Sunderland AFC’s Jack Clarke and Bradley Dack joined Foundation of Light participants for a candid discussion around mental health.

The Hetton Academy students are joining forces with more than 200 young people from across England and Wales to create a mentally healthy environment at their football clubs and in their communities, as part of this year’s Premier League Inspires Challenge.

The challenge is one element of the Premier League Inspires programme, which clubs run on a weekly basis to support 11–18-year-olds who may be at risk of not reaching their potential as they move through the education system and early adulthood.

This season’s Inspires Challenge tasked young people to take on a social action project raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing in their communities. Foundation of Light representatives developed a project that aimed to engage all Sunderland fans with reducing the stigma around mental health.

As part of this project, the students interviewed Jack Clarke and Bradley Dack around what they love about the game and Sunderland AFC, to emphasise the importance of ‘opening up the conversation’ in a way that resonated with Black Cats fans of all ages. The players spoke candidly about their struggles as a person and a player, and what they do to respond positively to negative experiences.

Having come up with their mental health social action ideas, Foundation of Light participants joined hundreds of young people at the Premier League Inspires Challenge celebration event at Wembley Stadium on Thursday 25^th April, where they shared details of their activity with teams of their peers representing 45 clubs from across the Premier League and the English Football League.

Watch the highlights from Bradley and Jack's visit:

The Foundation of Light Premier League Inspires Challenge team also explored the positive work Sunderland AFC is already doing to support mental health awareness. The group used the power of the Heart on your Sleeve campaign as well as the Premier League’s Inside Matters campaign, bringing the conversation around mental health and wellbeing to the forefront of all football fans’ conversations in the northeast.

Premier League Charitable Fund Chief Executive, Ruth Shaw OBE, said: “The Premier League and Premier League Charitable Fund are committed to working with professional football clubs, fans, players, communities, and partners to remind everyone that it is okay not to be okay and that it is vitally important that we keep up the conversation on mental health.

“Through the Premier League Inspires Challenge young people from across England and Wales have developed some brilliant ideas to create positive, mentally healthy environments at their football clubs and in school, at home and in their communities.”

Launched in 2019, Premier League Inspires creates life-changing opportunities for young people who have been identified by their schools as needing extra support to engage with activities, helping them to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes needed to succeed in life.

Using the power of football, the programme helps to prepare young people for further education and employment through a series of face-to-face mentoring sessions, workshops and social-action projects.

In this academic year, the Foundation of Light within its Premier League Inspires delivery has already supported 376 young people on a weekly basis through social action projects, PSHE delivery, STEM-based activity, and one-to-one mentoring sessions in 10 schools.

This season, 45 professional football club community organisations across the Premier League and English Football League are delivering Premier League Inspires sessions at their stadiums, in local schools and at alternative educational settings, with partnership support from the Professional Footballers’ Association.

More than 29,000 young people from across England and Wales have received more than 125,000 hours of targeted support through the programme to date.

To find out more, please visit premierleague.com.