The first ever NottAlone event, a mental health event for children and young people. has received rave reviews from school staff and pupils from across the county.

Held as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, the event at Nottingham Racecourse, brought more than 1,000 schoolchildren and teachers together with the aim of developing young people’s confidence and resilience to combat mental health issues.

NottAlone is partnership between Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council, supported by the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, with the aim of helping children and young people with mental health concerns and signposting them to the right local support available. The organisation of the event was a successful collaboration between Nottingham City mental health support team, and the NottAlone consortium.

Children at the event were able to take part in a range of workshops with staff from the mental health support team, to learn about subjects such as resilience and bullying. Children also took part in yoga and art workshops, visited the main stage with performers and motivational speakers, and had the opportunity to get information from over 40 stalls from providers of local mental health and wellbeing services.

Children and young people were able to give feedback about the activities and educational elements at the event.

A Year 10 student said: “My parents didn’t really get brought up with [learning about mental health], so I think it’s good if we start to learn more about it so we can start to try and help the younger generation now.”

Mental Health leads from primary and secondary schools across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire were invited to the event and along with pupils heard keynote speaker and TV presenter Ashley John-Baptiste give an inspiring talk about overcoming adversity and the power of positive thinking, drawing on his own experiences of growing up in foster care.

NottAlone Co-founder and Nottingham City Council Mental Health Support Team Service Manager, Dr Maddi Popoola, said:

“It was such a pleasure to see children and young people with smiles on their faces at our first NottAlone Live event. It has been months in the planning, and I think that everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed it and they left with some very important tools to support their mental health and are now aware of local services that can support them.

“I’m really proud of how well this event has come together and it makes it all worth it when you get to see the positive impact it is already making on young people in our community.”

Mum of Alfie, age 9, who attended the primary school session, said: “Alfie felt happy being invited to attend the event and found it interesting. He took part in the bullying workshop and he said he didn’t realise that banter could be considered a form of bullying. His favourite part of the day was seeing Nottingham Forest’s European Cup and having his photo taken with it!”

A stallholder for Healthy Family Teams Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
“The NottAlone Live event was an amazing day and proved to be a really positive way of getting details of our services across to schools in Notts, as well as building connections with other organisations. We had an amazing time and are already looking forward to the next one.”

Notts County Foundation, the official charity of Notts County Football Club, was there to run workshops on young peoples’ wellbeing.

Lucy Devine, Mental Health Officer at Notts County Foundation, said: “The NottAlone Live event was a fantastic opportunity for Notts County Foundation to showcase the work we do to support young peoples’ wellbeing as well as connect and learn about the great work taking place across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to support mental health and wellbeing.

“There was a real buzz throughout the whole day with hundreds of young people excited to learn more about wellbeing and openly talking about what it means to them. The event brought together schools, colleges, and community support organisations from across Notts through creative and engaging stalls, workshops, talks…and plenty of colour and glitter! It was great to see that young people were central and at the heart of the day, we are already looking forward to the next event!”

Coun Tracey Taylor, Nottinghamshire County Council cabinet member for Children and Families, who attended the event, added: “It is so important now more than ever that we look after our young people’s mental health. With children growing up on social media, mental health concerns are rife and it’s important that we recognise the impact that social media, technology and a global pandemic has had on a whole generation of children.

“NottAlone is a fantastic resource. The website can be viewed as a young person, parent/carer, or professional, and depending on which you select, you will see tailored information about mental health support for young people, curated for the relevant audience. Our aim is for NottAlone to be the first port of call for local information to support young people who are struggling with mental health concerns.

“It is very rewarding to see so many young people engaging in the NottAlone Live event and learning important lessons that they will hopefully carry with them for life.”

The NottAlone website launched in September 2021 and has since had over 27,000 views, with the most-viewed webpages for young people being topics such as anxiety and panic attacks, anger, and depression and low mood.

The website and materials were developed in collaboration with children and young people, parents and carers and professionals, to ensure the messaging and look of NottAlone would meet the needs of local young people.

Visit the NottAlone website: www.nottalone.org.uk or follow NottAlone on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube using the handle @NottAlone1.