Empowering young people: Improving mental health through physical activity
Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire ran an evaluation of Watford FC’s Community Sports and Education Trust’s Empower programme, a free 6-month project that aims to improve young people’s mental health using physical activity.
The Empower Evaluation, conducted in 2022 by Dr Han Newman, Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire’s Applied Psychology Research Group, and Dr Louca-Mai Brady, Reader in Youth Involvement and Health at the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, calls for a more joined-up approach to physical and mental health support for young people.
The Empower programme, which combines physical activity and mental health support, was found to bring many positive benefits for the young people who took part, enabling them to understand and communicate their feelings, manage and control challenging emotions, and increase their confidence.
However, the evaluation also found that programmes like Empower tend to run in isolation, and that only a more integrated approach, with long-term support, would be able to make the kind of impact required to tackle the widespread problem regarding children’s mental health.
About Empower
Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust’s Empower programme, funded by Comic Relief, has been running since April 2020 and at the time of the evaluation had helped over 300 young people in Hertfordshire to manage their mental health through physical activity. The programme runs weekly across a 6-month period, each 90-minute session is divided into 60 minutes of sport or exercise such as dodgeball, football, basketball, badminton, or dance; and a 30-minute wellbeing workshop, where coaches are joined by psychotherapists to facilitate workbook activities and encourage conversation between the young people.
The sessions aim to help the young people, aged 9 to 12, to manage their emotions, understand their triggers and increase their resilience, as well as giving them an extra support network. It is particularly aimed at young people who are experiencing challenges with their mental health, which could include anxiety, low self-esteem, panic disorders or bereavement.
Mental health and physical activity – Supporting young people
The links between sport and exercise participation and good mental health are well-researched and well-documented. However, programmes like Empower differ from services that provide either physical activity opportunities or mental health support and are innovative in the way they proactively combine the two, giving young people space to address their emotional challenges alongside an activity session.
Programmes like Empower, provided by football club community trusts and other sporting organisations, tend to run in the individual locations and communities where they are based. They often provide an invaluable source of assistance for local young people – and their families and carers – many of whom struggle to access it elsewhere amid long waiting lists and immense pressures on NHS mental health services.
However, the evaluation also concluded that to fulfil the untapped potential of this kind of approach and make a greater impact, similar programmes across the UK should be more joined-up in their methods and their analysis to continue developing best practice, demonstrate the tangible benefits on a large scale, and spread the word to young people and families who need this kind of support.
It’s also vital that these programmes are given the funding and the backing to offer long-term support to young people. Amongst the evaluation’s findings was a concern that once the fixed-term programme comes to an end, children, parents and carers risk the sudden loss of a hugely positive and impactful support network.
The Empower Evaluation by the University of Hertfordshire was funded by Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust and supported by the NIHR Applied Research Council (ARC) East of England.
View the Empower Evaluation: Summary Report and Full Report
Author
Research Fellow, Dr Han Newman and UH Press Office