Children’s Mental Health Week: mental health is crucial every week

by Richard Hughes, Director of Abode Living

The theme of the most recent Children’s Mental Health Week was ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’. The aim was to equip and empower children and young people across the UK to embrace self-awareness and explore what it means to them, how to build resilience, grow and develop.

Nowhere is this more important than in social housing, where families are often placed outside of where they lived previously, and many of whom do not have a support network in place. Some are unable to access nursery and social groups for young children, let alone early years education.

As a responsible private provider of affordable and social housing, Abode Living has invested in a support network to provide children with the chance to socialise, learn skills and develop learning from a young age. This has been proven to help children build confidence and help them before they reach school age.

Abode Living is now calling on other providers of affordable housing to do the same. 

“The children of today are the people of tomorrow and they deserve not to be forgotten about”

Putting a secure and high-quality roof over people’s heads is one thing, but looking after tenants’ well-being should be right up there. With some of society’s most vulnerable people residing in these communities, it’s crucial a support system is put in place to help them live better lives in every aspect.

From educational workshops to providing libraries of books for young children, running art and craft sessions to organising play and sports programmes and, of course, well-being and mental health sessions for parents in order to better support their children – all of this gives families a better living experience and helping them to build resilience and other important skills are essential to positive mental health.

Abode Living’s family-oriented scheme at Sutherland House in Crawley has a dedicated workshop cabin with a programme of well-attended family events, and has been a huge success.

Over the past year, gardens have been planted, a whole animal farm visited the community, and numerous parties and entertainment have been held. As a result, children and their parents have built strong relationships with the team on the ground, as well as with each other – all of which are crucial to a strong and positive long-term community.

Abode Living is willing to work with any other provider of affordable housing to share ideas and work towards bettering people’s lives on an ongoing basis, not just until they get placed in a home.

After all, the children of today are the people of tomorrow and they deserve not to be forgotten about.