We at The Safety Box believe internal obstacles such as depression can be dealt with solutions surrounding representation in fields dedicated to help people (i.e., counselling/therapy) alongside interventions focused on gradual processes of creating understanding before healing. We offer a program named ‘Project #318.’ Project #318 is a unique, awareness program delivered by people that have overcome depression or have a cognizant understanding of it. Aims relating to the program is to teach young people (12-21), students within the teaching sector, parents & guardians, education professionals, safeguarding officers, teachers, school/college staff, youth & social workers the importance of a support network when dealing with mental illnesses. Our program is delivered in 7 phases with an additional extension that aids young people whose previous experiences with trauma have affected them in a way that resembles a hostage of emotional expression. The assistance is expressed as a one-to-one counselling session with our HCPC registered Forensic and Clinical Psychologists who, for our young people and adults referred from our courses, will be given lead therapy support. We offer interventions akin to this such as the Aspire Higher Program for a younger generation: an AQA accredited holistic life skills & personal development program designed in partnership with Syrus Consultancy CIC to change behaviour traits and negative mindsets. These programs help to combat the struggles of mental health in the short-term and long-term.

In 1933, Harvard Graduate, American Historian, and a historical founder of Black History Month, known officially as Carter G. Woodson, once premised in his work titled ‘The Mis-education of the Negro’ that the education he witnessed for the Black community was a cultural indoctrination as opposed to an education received to provide a foundation for their lives. In his words, Woodson stated “if you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. […] you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself.” As a message, this can be interpreted as a person’s actions becoming a direct reflection of what has been told of them; what they have internalized and as a result, think of themselves in negative light. Now, how does this tie into Mental Health Awareness Week? Well what Woodson has described here is evident for how a lot of our internal struggles have materialized. For many of us, especially our Youth, we have found comfort in our silence more than we give permission to ourselves to open and communicate our battles. If we do not fit the standard placed upon us, then a part of us subconsciously accepts this false status- causing a type of invisibility to exist. That in this invisibility, we either feel protected or unable to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Deep down, we know this invisibility shields us away from harmful opinions on mental health. It’s this idea that we were taught, told to feel a certain way, rather than allowed to feel nor regulate our emotions from a healthy angle.

Project #318, as a point of reference for the work we do, involves a team who utilities their own experiences to help guide the Youth in formulating a healthy understanding about their mental health- that their battle does not define them. It is essential that our Youth know we are there for them as we care so much for them. We want you to know that our team is a support network for you. We hear you. We see you. We will do everything in our power to prioritize your needs. We, together, will work to remove these obstacles hindering your potential, dimming your light, to ensure that you step into a future- one of your choosing. Conversations around mental health are never easy, yet from a collective place of understanding comes the greatest of changes.

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