Youthful Minds is a participation group of young people (aged between 11-25) volunteering for Mind Jersey. The group has been set up to ensure that Mind Jersey keeps children and young people in mind in pursuit of its vision. We aim to change public attitudes and reduce stigma and misunderstanding. It has been running since June 2015.

Youthful Minds therefore aims to tackle the stigma associated with children and young people’s mental health in Jersey. To achieve this Youthful Minds have created a campaign which is ongoing. We have worked alongside Mental Health Services and met with many professionals within the Mental Health services. We are able to give feedback to these professionals about what helps a young person with her mental health and hopefully through these meetings we can improve the services for other young people.

Lots of our work involves creative elements like making and designing leaflets, posters and presentations for a variety of different organisations and charities. We raise awareness of Mental Health problems by going into schools (primary and secondary) and also signpost young people to where they can go if they feel they need some extra support.

• To raise awareness of Youthful minds and provide information of what we do
• To have young people’s voices heard
• Reduce stigma surrounding mental health problems

We meet every Monday at 5pm-7pm at The Bridge. We do try to be as flexible as we can about the time we want from you so outside of the volunteer meetings there are a lot of different things to get involved in.

We have found that Youthful Minds can

• Increase your confidence and do something important that will make a difference.
• Try something new, meet new people, enjoy yourself and have a laugh.
• Attend training in equality and diversity, mental health awareness, communication skills
• Improve your skills and develop experience to boost your CV.
• Mind Jersey can provide you with written references for new jobs etc

The only requirement people need to join youthful minds is to have a passion about promoting mental health to other young people, parents, professionals and the wider community, and to be willing to have your voice heard.