Charlie – One YMCA
Charlie was bullied at a young age by the older children at his secondary school. Because of this, his mental health started to deteriorate and he was advised to visit YMCA.
After his first visit to YMCA, Charlie continued to come back. As well as coming to the youth clubs, he started attending one to one mentoring sessions to help him build up his confidence.
From this Charlie began to take part in more activities and join in with community projects. He even took leadership of his own project where he visited local old people’s homes, cooked them dinner, played bingo and socialised. He organised this after connecting his isolation to theirs.
As well as this Charlie has gone onto become One YMCA’s first Mental Health Champion. Part of this role included delivering youth programmes and workshops, and speaking up for young people.
He became integral with the organisation of the workshops, tailoring them to meet the needs of young people today. The positive impact of this on young people is clear and it’s been found to help them to open up in difficult conversations.
Charlie is no longer the boy who had lost his confidence, but a confident, positive and inspiring person to all.