Newham

The guiding principle of Right Here Newham is "nothing about us, without us", in other words, BAME young people must have a say in the support that is provided to help them look after their mental health. In general BAME young men and women only access mental health services at crisis points. Lack of appropriate early intervention and preventative services leaves this group particularly vulnerable.

Recent Activities

• Right Here Newham’s youth panel has been exploring poetry and the spoken word around the project’s two main themes:  lack of support for young people and violence.  The panel members have also hosted vox-pop sessions in local barbershops and hairdressers to find out what other young people think about violence, and to make them aware of the project. 
  
  
• Another group of wellbeing champions has been recruited, two of whom held a drop-in session at Focus Foyer in Stratford – a hostel for young people in Newham. 
  
  
• The wellbeing champions have completed their project plan, which focuses on the use of theatre to explore the issue of lack of support for young people;  workshops are being delivered on this topic with other young people, and local policymakers.
  
  
• Members of the youth panel have run consultation activities with young mental health service users and a workshop for professionals has been delivered at the CAMHS Forum, focusing on street violence and its effect on mental health in the community.
  
  
• A meeting has been held with the Chair of the Mental Health Sub Group for Newham, resulting in plans to improve the environment at the CAMHS facility.
  
  
• HUBB, a service user led’ charity, supported by NHS Barking & Dagenham and Local Authority and NHS Havering and Local Authority is working with Right Here Newham to deliver a series of Youth Mental Health First Aid programmes before March 2012.  This initiative was commissioned by the project’s youth panel.
  
  
• Young people from Right Here Newham came together with other young people involved with mental health projects from across London, including YoungMinds Very Important Kids (VIK) project, and the Peer Outreach Team from the Greater London Authority’s Children and Young People’s Unit, to produce 'State of Mind', Young Londoners' Manifesto for Mental Health.   The Manifesto was created because young people feel that their views and experiences are too often ignored when decisions are made about them and they want to play a part in shaping the services provided for them.   At the launch of ‘State of Mind’, on Monday 10 October - World Mental Health Day - London’s Mayoral candidates were challenged to include a section on children’s and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in their manifestos for the 2012 London elections.
  
  
• In commemoration of World Mental Health Day, Right Here Newham’s steering group members made a mark in the borough by bleaching the streets with positive mental health messages, created to challenge the stigma around mental health.  The process is called reverse graffiti and is completely safe and environmentally friendly. The idea arose from a visit to Right Here Newham’s sister project in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland where a team of young people from both Right Here projects bleached the streets of Enniskillen with positive messages. Read more