Welcome to Coping Through Football
Coping Through Football is a transformational project that demonstrates how two sporting charities, London Playing Fields Foundation and Leyton Orient Trust, can work with the NHS (in the shape of NELFT) to produce a sustainable recovery model approach to engage with and improve the wellbeing of adults and young people experiencing mental health issues.
The project shows how sport can:
• help tackle stigma and discrimination
• can work together with the health sector on shared agendas to reduce inequalities
• be a tool for engagement with marginalised groups
• assist in the recovery of those with mental ill health
The aim is to use the football experience to get fitter, increase levels of self-esteem and confidence, make new friends and ultimately to help people get their lives back on track. We do not see ourselves as a football project but as a therapeutic intervention that uses football as a tool to engage people who have experienced mental health problems. Most of our players have experienced social exclusion, unemployment, poor physical and mental health and lack a social network or support and Coping Through Football sets out to address these issues.
The project has been extremely successful in helping players to turn their lives around and to live more independently. It has been recognised by the Department of Health as a model of best practice in the recovery of people with long term mental health problems and our goal is to increase the number of people who benefit.
We have had many success stories, our participants attend the project for a number of reasons and want to achieve a variety of goals depending on the individual. Most want to improve their fitness and health, make more friends or achieve a vocational goal. The following film and case study demonstrate the positive impact the project has had on their lives.
Case study: Luke is an inspirational young man who came to Coping Through Football to help him to deal with the anxiety and depression he was experiencing. Through re-engaging with people and building his confidence at the session he has been able to return to school and contemplate a bright future for himself. Read his full story here:
