Young people's charity urges everyone in Milton Keynes to 'Give Your Mind a Minute' on Mental Health Day tomorrow

MK charity YiS, which offers free counselling to young people aged between 11 and 21 all over the city, has organised a non-stop programme of virtual events throughout the day on Instagram and YouTube.

From 9.30am tomorrow (Saturday), live streamed videos will be broadcast throughout the day on the YiS Instagram platform and uploaded on it YouTube channel.

The Instagram link for YiS is here and the YouTube link is here .

The festival will be covering a range of topics including sport and wellbeing, how to boost self-esteem and confidence and friendships.

People can listen to personal stories of how local people have coped with mental health problems and there a coronavirus resource pack for parents.

The message is that everybody should spend at least a minute, preferably much longer, tomorrow focusing on their mental health.

YiS has organised the festival to raise awareness of mental health and bring the MK community together.

A spokesman said: "The world looks very different right now and the lockdown has bought social isolation to many, so we hope that this festival will bring some love and light to people and encourage people to raise awareness and celebrate mental health.

The charity, which has seen demand for its free services soar during lockdown, used its team of wellbeing champions to create the social media platform

Grace Spicer, 18, is events organiser and a volunteer for YiS. She said: “Mental health is vital. Especially during times like these. As volunteers, we created ‘Give your mind a minute’ to focus on the importance of mental health and wellbeing.

"Our virtual festival will feature a line-up of mental health-boosting activities, live interviews, stories and wellbeing sessions for everyone. We will be addressing the importance of sport and well-being, music for mental health, mental health stores, parents tips for mental health - the list goes on.”

World Mental Health Day is a day when the world comes together to raise awareness of mental health and mental illness. The theme for this year is around greater investment and greater access.

This comes at a time when we the UK experiencing the unprecedented impact of the global health emergency due to Covid-19 and the impact that this is having on the mental health of many, says YiS

The YiS event has been inspired by the champions' own mental health stories throughout their lives and how they got through it individually.

They hope to inspire others to be more open about their mental health throughout all aspects of their lives.

YiS is a long running independent charity that works in Milton Keynes to help young people as well as the people that support them. It provides BACP-accredited counselling,, education and training and more for young people aged in Milton Keynes.

The charity works with a range of issues including anxiety, depression, anger, recovery from abuse, family problems, relationship difficulties.

You can read more about YiS here .

The schedule for tomorrow is:

9:30am – Gareth, the CEO of YiS opens the event.

10am - Toni talks: Self Esteem and Confidence

10:30am - Ivan’s and Max’s story: Football and wellbeing

11am - Grace's story: Blossoming

11:30am - Ask Annalise and Toni: "Friendships"

12pm - Coronavirus and wellbeing resources for parents

12:30pm - Grahams story: Mental Health past, present and future

1pm - Sandeep, talks about her story of ‘The angel and the devil’

1:30pm – Julia from Collars and Cuffs, ‘Hug your brain’

2pm - Ross Abbot: Talking Mental Health in the workplace

2:30pm – SONG

3pm - Our YiS Champions team close the event