Our Work

Our core purpose at Bee-lieve Foundation is:

To advance in life young people up to the age of 18 and their families living in but not limited to South East England through the provision of mental health support, social and physical activities & opportunities which develop their resilience, capacities and capabilities, enabling them to participate in society as mature, confident and responsible individuals.

We want to equip every young person with the knowledge, understanding, strategies and confidence to maintain positive mental health & wellbeing and we aim to do this, primarily, through high quality education, early intervention and support.

Schools are very well placed to support young people and positively impact on their mental health as young people repeatedly tell us they want support from adults they know and in an environment they are familiar with.

However there are significant challenges in delivering highly effective mental health support in schools. These include:

Funding for resources
Confidence, training & expertise of staff
Access to early intervention

At Bee-lieve Foundation there are a number of ways we aim to help including, but not limited to:

Providing resources for schools and families to use with individuals, groups or whole-class activities
Delivering and providing evidence-based interventions for individuals or small groups
Delivering and providing staff training to enhance skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting young people with mental health conditions
Delivering and providing parent workshops
Working alongside schools and families in signposting additional support services available

As educationalists at heart, we strongly believe that a preventative approach is the key to success. We aim to provide young people with a more comprehensive understanding of:

Self-care skills
The benefits of physical exercise in supporting positive mental health
How to nurture and develop their personal qualities, talents and aspirations
How to build and develop strong relationships
How our mind and body reacts to the different situations we face each day and how we can learn to manage and control our emotional responses

So, why is our work at Bee-lieve Foundation so important?

The latest research tells us that 1 in 6 young people aged 5-16 are now likely to have a diagnosable mental health issue. This is an alarming rise from 1 in 10 in 2003 and 1 in 9 in 2017 (statistics provided by NHS Digital). These new figures equate to roughly 5 young people in every classroom in the UK, (70 in a two-form entry primary school and up to 320 in a large secondary school).

Alarmingly, up to 75% of these young people never receive support for their mental health issues.

Furthermore, there is, on average, a 10 year delay between young people displaying first symptoms and getting professional help.

Equally alarming is the statistic that 34% of young people referred into NHS services are not accepted into treatment.

Research also tells us that 50% of mental health issues in adulthood are already established by the age of 14 so preventative support in the early and adolescent years is vital to long term positive mental health.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues for several reasons:

Childhood and adolescence is a very difficult time. Young people face many pressures such as exams, friendships, family conflict, social media, bullying. These can all create more difficulty for young people to handle emotionally
As an adult, we have experienced anxiety, stress and worry previously so have developed some coping mechanisms to help deal with these pressures. For young people experiencing these emotions for the first time, it can be very challenging or frightening. Young people may not yet have the vocabulary to label these emotions or clearly articulate their feeling
The human brain does not reach full maturity until around the age of 25 so for young people, they are much more driven by the emotional responses in the brain and less capable of using reasoning or rationale thought to deal with the issues they face

Established in July 2020, Bee-lieve Foundation is already working alongside 19 primary and secondary schools within Surrey and Middlesex in supporting the mental health & wellbeing of young people. So far, we have provided the following support:

Donation of a large bank of resources to help school staff across 22 schools to deliver in-house mental health, nurture and wellbeing interventions
Full funding for 3 primary schools for a whole-school PSHE programme called Connect.
Full funding to train a member of staff from 18 primary schools in Drawing & Talking therapy
Part-funding to train a member of staff from a further 5 primary schools in Drawing & Talking therapy
Funding for 20 schools to implement a whole-school assessment, monitoring and tracking programme called Bounce Together.

To find out more about our work or to discuss any potential support from Bee-lieve Foundation, please use the 'Contact Us' section below.