I’m George’s Mate

We want to give young people the knowledge and skills to support their mental health and prevent suicide. We support and fund mental health and suicide awareness training for young people. Our initial focus is on promoting good mental health among young people in County Durham, Darlington and Middlesbrough, though we aim to develop these opportunities nationwide.

How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?

We assist and fund the provision of accredited mental health and suicide awareness courses in secondary schools and FE colleges. Our aim is to develop these opportunities nationwide.
We also provide information on mental health and suicide awareness. This is done via our website and social media connections. We also run public events and fundraisers which allow us to connect with the general public.

What are your current priorities?

1. To develop our funding base to expand our work.
2. To create our own accredited suicide prevention course for young people to access free of charge.
3. To petition Parliament to make suicide prevention and awareness a compulsory element of the National Curriculum.

What challenges are you currently facing?

Whilst we have strong contacts with individual schools and colleges, our biggest challenge is to have our approach accepted on a uniform local authority basis.

This issue also impacts on our target to develop a common safeguarding form to be used across all local authorities.