Entrepreneur: Mark Peters, qualified sports instructor and community youth worker, based in Birmingham.

What does it do? Start Again Football is a social enterprise that provides customised support in the form of exercise, community re-integration and employment opportunities to young people with mental health issues. The aim is to encourage young people to regain control of their lives and re-ignite a sense of purpose and wellbeing.

Need: One in six people suffer, at some point in their life, from a mental health issue in the UK. It is widely known that effects of mental illness in early life have a negative impact upon individuals' opportunities to complete education, training, gain qualifications or become socially and economically independent. Current mental health service provisions do little to empower the individual to manage their own recovery plan and to integrate a holistic approach to their sustained recovery.

Solution: Start Again requires the individual to play a central role in the selection and delivery of therapeutic activities. Options stretch beyond traditional approaches and integrate exercise, which has been shown to improve mental wellbeing, as well as offering social benefit.
Start Again's range of intitiatives include a ground breaking football coaching service that is uniquely designed and tailored to the needs of individuals suffering with mental health issues.

This approach provides young people with access to a structured, safe and enabling environment whereby football is used therapeutically and as a gateway into a wide range of developmental services. The service covers the entire spectrum of illness from low level anxiety and depression to acute psychosis. Specific focus is placed on supporting individuals during the challenging transition from adolescence to adulthood, including young people making the transition from care or supported accommodation to independent living.

Health Launchpad has assisted Start Again by providing seed funding and business development expertise to develop a robust and viable business plan and identifying a growth plan for scalability. Start Again has been commissioned by NHS Birmingham East and North to deliver a one year test and learn pilot from May 2010, propelling the expansion of the service across the West Midlands and wider afield. This will form the basis for roll out on a regional and national basis.

Latest news: In March Start Again successfully passed Commissioning Gateway 2 and awarded £128,326 from NHS Birmingham East and North.

Start Again is developed by Health Launchpad at The Young Foundation.

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