We are proud to launch our new charitable Mental Health Awareness football box alongside Six Connections. They were created in 2021, initially with beers and coffees, designed to help start the conversation around mental health. In normal places like the pub or at the footy. Products linked to conversation, to get the conversation going.
Six Connections focus heavily on the influence of friendships with their slogan #PoweredByMates, with their online help community giving advice for friends of people who may be struggling with poor mental health.
Football plays such a massive role in people's lives, with many spending most of their day talking about it with their friends and family. It's the perfect vacuum to help start a conversation with your loved ones to see how are they doing.
The company aims to tackle the stigma of talking openly about men’s mental health, promote positive physical and mental wellbeing and create open and welcoming atmospheres where personal issues can be raised and discussed in a safe and secure environment.
They want to encourage more men to feel comfortable talking about their mental health and feel able to support their friends and families through difficult times.
The organisation’s founder Mr Scholes was prompted to start the community experiencing mental health difficulties of his own.
Mr Scholes said: “If I could work through this, it felt like others could too.
“I wasn’t an expert, but with time and the right direction, I knew that, like me, everyone could learn more about managing their own mental health, what expert advice is available and what genuinely supporting others looks like.
“We can all play our part to help our mates.”
As a Northern Irish company, mental health and suicide rings heavy in our country. There’s a stigma surrounding mental health in Northern Ireland, with mounting pressure on men to ‘man up’. Men are less likely to open up to their family and friends about their struggles with mental health, which can have worrying consequences. In fact, suicide is the leading killer of men under 50 in Northern Ireland with 1 in 3 men having experienced suicidal thoughts as a result of feeling stressed.
We thought the collaboration was perfect, to use football as a way to help people talk to each other about their wellbeing. We designed a bright, colourful shirt which would be perfect down at the 5 a side. Each box includes an information card with a QR code to scan to help start a conversation with your mates.
Helping mates to talk and support each other. Making those tough conversations easier. One healthy conversation being the catalyst for another, for six others, six more and then six more. For mates. Powered By Mates.
