Dear Club Member,
Following the recent resignation of two of our Mental Health Champions (Alison and Kaine) due to personal reasons and other priority commitments, we are looking to appoint more people in the club to the role.
With a membership of around 600, and multiple weekday club nights regularly attended by 50 or more members, it is important that we are able to support your mental health and wellbeing. The club has made a commitment, through the England Athletics #runandtalk programme, to actively promote mental health wellbeing and running, to encourage and promote conversations about mental health, and to have Mental Health Champions who are both visible and available to run and talk with you. It is our aim to have at least one Mental Health Champion at each of our main weekday club nights (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday).
With the criteria for appointment including a lived experience of personal or family mental health problems, it is understandable that our current Mental Health Champions are not always available to run and talk with you. As there is no upper limit set by England Athletics on the number of Mental Health Champions in the club, we are looking to appoint as many as necessary to ensure regular visibility and support.
We are particularly looking for club members who fulfill the criteria for the role, AND are regular weekly attendees at one of our weekday club nights.
If you are interested in applying, please read the role profile and find out how to apply below. If you don’t feel you have the time to commit to becoming a Mental Health Champion but would still like to help, supporting their activities will be very much appreciated.
If you are unsure about committing to this role without any training to support you, the club is intending to provide Mental Health Awareness training, which all Mental Health Champions would be eligible to attend free of charge.
The closing date for applications is Sunday 10th February 2019.
Glenn Barker
Lead Mental Health Champion
Black Pear Joggers
Mental Health Champion Role Profile
With a membership of around 600, and multiple weekday club nights regularly attended by 50 or more members, it is important that we are able to support their mental health and wellbeing. The club has made a commitment, through the England Athletics #runandtalk programme, to actively promote mental health wellbeing and running, to encourage and promote conversations about mental health, and to have Mental Health Champions who are visible and available to run and talk with you. It is our aim to have at least one Mental Health Champion at each of our main weekday club nights (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday).
The key responsibilities of the role are to:
- Promote mental wellbeing through running by supporting the aims of the England Athletics #runandtalk programme
- Encourage and promote conversations about mental health
- Work with the club to support its members to improve their mental health through running
- Support new people who are experiencing mental health problems to start running, get back into running, or continue running
- Support #runandtalk campaigns for Time to Talk Day (February) and World Mental Health Day (October) and other club activities related to mental health
- Provide crisis contacts for members of the club experiencing mental health problems
Apply for the Role
Applications for the role should be submitted by Sunday 10th February 2019 using the link below. If you would like to find out more about the role first, please get in touch with our lead Mental Health Champion, Glenn Barker.
