As 2021 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to acknowledge all the incredible things that have happened at Sport in Mind this year. Whilst the year has, for everyone, presented challenges and difficulties, it has also been a wonderful year of development and progression for the charity, which we want to take a moment to reflect on.

We started the year with the announcement that we would become the official charity partner for RED January, a nationwide movement that encourages people of all abilities to get active every day in January to beat the winter blues away. Our founder Neil said at the time “With the recent impact of the pandemic, we have been unable to offer all the sessions we usually would, however RED January gives us the opportunity to encourage everyone to stay active. We are excited to be the official charity partner and hope we can motivate everyone to move daily and improve their physical and mental wellbeing throughout January and beyond” RED January 2021 was a huge success for us all, with an incredible £325,000 raised throughout the month! Let’s see if we can smash that target for RED January 2022!

In April, Sport in Mind turned 10! After another long lockdown we celebrated with our ‘Do 10!’ campaign, encouraging everyone to get active (because that’s what we’re about right?!) by taking part in an activity that included the number 10. Throughout the week we celebrated by remembering some of our key moments from the last 10 years and cheering on our wonderful supporters taking on the ‘Do 10’ challenge. It has been an exciting 10 years for so many reasons, but the most special thing is meeting all the amazing people who have been involved with Sport in Mind whether as participants, volunteers or coaches. Hearing the positive impact our work has had on everyone’s lives is what inspires us and all we can say is ‘bring on’ the next 10 years.

Following our 10 year anniversary, it was an incredibly proud moment for Sport in Mind as we launched our Children and Young Person Programme. The ground-breaking service provides sport and exercise opportunities for children and young people who are experiencing mental health challenges. By the summer we had a full programme of holiday sessions running, and since then we have developed our comprehensive after school programme and workshops, family days, and as we close the year we are delivering our Christmas Youth Sessions. We are so delighted to see our vision come to life in such an incredible way. None of this would have been possible without our funding partners, and in particular the incredible Crocombe family and the Mr Crocombe legacy fund, which is enabling us to help more children improve their mental wellbeing, and changing their lives.

  

In May we were very excited to launch our Sport in Mind journals! The journals are packed with useful tool, tips, and tactics to help improve mental wellbeing. They are full of ideas about how to get active, feel more in control, and help identify the positive actions taken each day- all of which helps when life becomes overwhelming. Our adult journals have been a huge success, which resulted in the launch of our youth journals later in the year. These journals have now become an integral part of our service offering, both within the Sport in Mind community and beyond.

As we moved into the 2^nd half of the year, Sport in Mind were delighted to be able to expand the team and really develop our regional programme through funding from Sport England and priceless support from our wonderful NHS trusts. As a direct result of the support from Sport England, and based on the success of the sports sessions we run in Berkshire, we have fully expanded our services across the South East and Dorset. We have dedicated Sport in Mind teams in place developing each area, building our presence in local communities, growing the services we offer, and working in tandem with our amazing NHS to ensure we are there to support those people who need it, when they need it. We are proud to currently be offering over 50 sessions, covering all types of sport and physical activity for mental wellbeing, across 8 counties. And it doesn’t stop there. We are continuing to build the services we offer- both in terms of number and variety of sessions we offer, and locations where our services are available.

 Sport in Mind CEO and Founder Neil Harris says: “I am so proud of what we have achieved in what has been an incredibly difficult time for everyone. To see our goal of setting up and delivering our regional programme realised is a huge milestone for Sport in Mind. Thank you to Sport England for helping us achieve our expansion into the South East and Dorset, and of course, thank you to our incredible NHS Trusts for their invaluable support. We are extremely proud to be working with you”

As you can see from these highlights, it has been a jam-packed year for Sport in Mind and we are so proud of everything that has been achieved. However it would not be possible with out the incredible support we receive from our community, and a review of the year would not be complete without a round up of some of the incredible fundraising challenges that our supporters have taken on in aid of Sport in Mind in 2021. To name a few we have had; Marathons, half marathons, ultra-marathons 12 hour spin challenges, ultra cycles, sports festivals, tournaments, Olympic competitions, endurance climbing challenges, the three peaks conquered, hair cut off, skinny dips, parties and balls, walks, swims, even sled pulling! Not a single one of your fundraising efforts goes unnoticed and we absolutely love them all! THANK YOU to you all for your incredible support- we simply would not be able to do what we do without you.

 

Now, bring on 2022….