The Gloves Are On, the children and young people’s charity founded by cancer survivor, Soraya Kelly are petitioning Welsh Government to include Well-Being on our new national curriculum.
Never has the mental health and well-being of our youth been so important. Not only is it tough enough today to navigate the pressures of life as a young person, the adverse effects of this pandemic has also seen their education interrupted, social life slashed, and all the joys of teenage times taken away.
The Gloves Are On (#TGAO) Charity, have a number of mental health and well-being packages that will prove crucial to helping our children and young people to recover from the damage inflicted by the corona virus limitations on their freedoms, education, recreational hobbies, and social interactions
A registered charity they are dedicated to providing a range of opportunities, education and support to children, young adults and their families on difficult and sensitive issues.
These diverse and inclusive health and wellbeing packages include support and advice on a range of issues that affect our youth, for example, bullying and mental health issues, relationships and sexuality, gang culture and knife crime, bereavement and loss, exam and peer pressure, personal development and self-confidence.
The Gloves Are On work with schools, organisations, businesses, and third sector organisations to deliver this support. Their core team, who act as Role Models, are supported by a number of credible and respected Ambassadors.
They are petitioning Welsh Government to insist that Well-Being is seen as an essential part of teaching in schools now – and is included on the new curriculum from September 2021.
You can make a difference by signing the Petition here.
Since, the start in January 2018, #TGAO have had much success, making improvements in areas such as well-being, raised awareness on many social issues, and have broken down barriers with increased positivity on an individual and group youth basis.
Spreading the message on social media, #TGAO have gone viral with mass support from the local community and beyond, including a number of professional sports personalities.
Current projects include:
#SeeSpeakSave well-being packages are being produced in collaboration with talented university students and alongside our educational mentors, Daydream Education.
A game style interactive Appis in the process of being developed with discussions around relevant marketing ongoing. Designed specifically to gain the interest of younger children, a cartoon character will reach, empower, educate and support those at a younger age.
#Unite4Youth is a project that provides `real’ paid opportunities for young people in collaboration with Cardiff City Council. The council fund the relevant course or training programme to enable a young person to work alongside qualified staff receiving wages through the #TheGlovesAreOn charity.
#FadeItOutKnockItOut is a discrimination in sport campaign. Topics such as, class, racism, male domination and female domination are researched and explored by young people in youth and sport clubs throughout Wales and beyond.
This wealth of experience working with children and young people makes the Charity ideally placed to help our youth recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic.
Soraya said: “As Ambassadors, working in the community, we know we have the full support of our stakeholders, partnership organisations, and the teaching profession, plus the children and young people themselves – whose lived experiences expose the damage done to this generation by the pandemic.
Please sign this petition to help us immediately deliver a holistic, one stop shop well-being package in schools in association with our partners with the aim of ensuring this is included on the new curriculum.
Our children and young people’s future depends on it!”
Speak soon.
Mrs SVJ
The Voice Of Our Community
FOR THE RECORD: Now #TGAO are petitioning the Parliament I work for, its finally time for me to swiftly step away from the Charity to focus on my more professional projects – and my ever urgent activism, of course.
I also completely condone the use of the #AllLivesMatter mantra that was used on a number of social media posts recently.
Feel free to join me as I continue write about the fight to make a real difference with Stand Up To Racism (Vale), LGBTQymru, An Anti-Racist Wales – the Race Equality Action Plan, and my other community activism work.
As always, I live to write another day, find my weekly opinion column in the Glamorgan Star – the Vale’s newest newspaper covering Barry and beyond. Read my Sue’s Views in print fortnightly, or online here.
Check out my legendary Sue’s Views back catalogue here.
And subscribe to our LGBTQymru Magazine here.
Sue Vincent-Jones, writing as Mrs SVJ, is a Barry born journalist, editor, and communications specialist. She blogs about Barry – and her life in the wider world, through the eyes of a, quirky and queer, local girl done good.
As a Trustee of #TheGlovesAreOn Sue promoted the work of the Charity, between 2018 to 2021 before handing over the role to pursue other projects. She was also both LGBTQ Lead, and Communications Advisor, for the collective.
Mrs SVJ, Barry’s Boldest Blogger, can be contacted here.