Charity football tournament at Harper for mental health charities

17 February 2023

The Farm Safety Foundation, home of Yellow Wellies, is the charity leading the campaign, #MindYourHead, to raise awareness of protecting the physical and mental wellbeing of those living and working in the sector.

As part of their sixth annual campaign, today’s theme is Give. To mark this event, we spoke to Tom York, Chairman of Harper Adams Football club about his involvement in an upcoming fundraising event.

The students of Harper Adams are coming together to hold a charity football tournament, run by Harper’s RAG Society, on March 29 in support of mental health charities in the rural community.

Chairman of Harper Adams Football Club, Tom York, is one of the driving forces behind the event, with support from the Students’ Union, and even some local businesses.

“What started as an idea quickly turned into a full charity event, comprised of multiple men’s and women’s teams across many societies at Harper.

“After working closely with Jess Millbank from the SU and Emma [Mayers], we’ve been able to turn this into a much bigger event than we thought to be possible.”

The money raised will be split between mental health charities Yellow Wellies and YANA – two charities that are close to many people’s hearts in the farming and rural community.

Tom said: “I want the event to be about students coming together as a community to support these great causes.

“It’s a great way to get the community involved, whether they’re playing or spectating.”

The event is open to students and members of the public to attend with a £1 admissions fee.

Matches will be held throughout the day starting at 12pm, with raffle tickets available to purchase on the day. There will be a raffle with prizes donated by students, as well as food and drinks available at the event.

Tom said: “Whilst it’s great that we can put this event on, it’s important to address that it’s a much bigger picture than just sport - hopefully this event can bring more awareness to an issue that’s big in agriculture. I know first-hand myself.”

Tom has used the Student Services at Harper before when dealing with mental health issues and said: “I have had some sessions with a counsellor myself and I really underestimated at first how beneficial they were actually going to be. You can just say what’s on your mind and there’s someone there to listen.”

Find out more information about the event on how to sign up and get involved here.

Help for Harper Adams staff

Harper Adams University works with Health Assured to provide an enhanced Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

The programme allows employees to directly access counselling, legal information and advice on debt, work, lifestyle addictions and relationships.

Contact details are shared with employees every week through an internal newsletter. Employees also receive wellbeing support from line managers and our Chaplaincy, HR and Mental Health First Aid teams; in addition to occupational health services provided by Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust.

Help for Harper Adams students

We all have mental health and we encourage our students to reach out if they are experiencing any difficulties.

It’s important to look after our mental health just as we do our physical wellbeing. You may be a student at the start or end of your student journey, or somewhere in between, or a member of the wider university community. You may feel you can talk to friends, your course team, colleagues and or your GP but the important thing to remember is no problem is too small and it can help to talk things through.

It is never too late to let someone know how you are feeling and asking for help. At University, specialist support can be offered via self-referral to the wellbeing team, by accessing the Student Assistance Programme or talking to one of the Mental Health First Aiders.

Further details can be found here.

Sometimes, online can be a good place to start to find out what other support is out there, and there is plenty:

www.yellowwellies.org

www.papyrus-uk.org

www.mind.org.uk

www.studentminds.org.uk/

www.studentsagainstdepression.org/

fcn.org.uk

www.vetlife.org.uk/

www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/

www.umhan.com/pages/for-students