Be Kind Movement works in areas of high deprivation supporting children aged 5-14 years old from low income families who come from disadvantaged and often traumatic and complicated backgrounds which can result in them displaying lack of empathy and kindness. These children often keep their thoughts, feelings and emotions bottled up. The current curriculum does not cater for space or time whilst our programme provides that creative space to prompt, and resources that equip children with emotional agility given the many challenges they face on a daily basis. Our work is designed to provide early support for children’s mental and emotional health which is critical in light of the shocking statistics of child mental health in the UK:
The pandemic, social inequality, austerity and online harm are all fuelling a crisis in which NHS mental health treatment referrals for under-18s have increased to more than 1.1m in 2021-22 (The Guardian January 2023).
The figures include children who are suicidal, self-harming, suffering serious depression or anxiety, and those with eating disorders.
- Roughly 1 in 3 children in every classroom in England have a diagnosable mental health condition.
- In 2017 suicide was the most common cause of death for children aged 5 to 19.
- Half of all mental health problems manifest themselves by the age of 14. Early intervention is key to tackling and reducing the mental health crisis among children and young people in the UK.Be Kind Movement’s demographic data shows that our workshops reach a balance of genders among an ethnically and culturally diverse range of children, many of whom speak English as a second language.
Our impact: Our work contributes to building emotionally intelligent children who are more likely to be mentally resilient, compassionate and kinder. This contributes towards building a more positive future that will impact their families, communities and society in general.
Recent workshop feedback from June 2023 showed that
- 96% of children enjoyed the workshops,
- 88% said they learnt more about kindness, compassion and assertiveness and
- 92% enjoyed the activities and films.
Your fundraising efforts can help support children and young people in the following ways: - Deliver free kindness workshops that build vital life skills such as resilience, compassion, courage, gratitude and mindfulness ;
- Develop an e-learning platform to support children's continual learning of EQ skills and kindness and reaching many more children across the UK in a cost effective and environmentally friendly way
- Enable us to stay afloat by contributing to our operating costs (we are volunteer led)
We are looking for a number of volunteers for the following positions, all of which are remote roles.
Please look at the links of job descriptions below, and if you have any questions, please email us at info@bekindmovement.org. Together, let's make the world a kinder place!
Click on this link for our current volunteering vacancies:
https://reachvolunteering.org.uk/org/be-kind-movement
