Minds Within The Bay Project

We were delighted to be approached to work on behalf of West End Morecambe Big Local (WEM) to recruit and train a small group of young people to lead on distributing £20,000 in grant funding. We know that mental health is one of the biggest challenges that young people are currently facing. We believe that young people are experts in their own lives. We are therefore committed to putting our trust in young people to enable them to address this challenge. The group, who all live in the West End of Morecambe, were tasked with deciding how the funding was allocated to projects that support young people with their mental health in the West End of Morecambe.

We successfully recruited young people from a diverse range of backgrounds through utilising our links with local partner organisations that support young people. Organisations approached included Stanleys, More Music, Polish Saturday School, Wise Up Workshops, Out In The Bay as well as local schools. Ten young people (aged between 15 and 18) registered an interest which led to six young people attending three training sessions in June and July 25. The training was facilitated by Think Forward CIC and consisted of teambuilding activities with an aim of building a solid foundation for the programme. Training also supported the group to understanding issues around mental health as well as the mechanics of distributing funding. Catherine Westwell, Young People’s Foundation Officer said

‘The young people have been busy designing the application process and branding for the project. We are privileged to have recruited such a fantastic group of young people. I am in awe of their enthusiasm and commitment to making a positive difference in the community where they live’.

The young people were excited to launch the ‘Minds Within The Bay’ funding Pot. The funding opportunity was promoted to Morecambe based organisations who were encouraged to apply for small grants of up to £1,000 and large grants of up to £4,000. The funds priority was to support young people with improving their mental health.  Nine organisations submitted funding applications, and the following projects were chosen by the young people to receive funding:

We are excited about finding out what difference the funding has made to the lives of young people living in West End Morecambe.