Movember’s Ahead of the Game Program Breaks New Ground
Ahead of the Game
Despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the last 18 months, Movember’s flagship Ahead of The Game (AoTG) program has continued to make great strides in the UK.
Working with our delivery partner Rugby League Cares, we are continuing to roll out face-to-face mental fitness workshops to 8,000 teenage rugby league players, their parents, and sports coaches.
The workshops, which are being delivered by current and former professional athletes, resumed in April 2021, following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in the north of England.
The evidence-based program is aimed at adolescent boys aged between 12-18 and delivered through community sports clubs. During the two-hour workshops, participants learn how to identify signs of anxiety, depression and low mood in themselves and others.
In separate workshops, their parents and sports coaches learn how to distinguish between potential mental health problems and normal teenage behaviour.
The program was tested by researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia, on 350 boys aged between 12 and 18 across three different sports including football, rugby league and swimming, over a season-long period.
Teenagers who took part in the study - the biggest of its kind in the world - demonstrated a better understanding of what mental health is, had greater intentions to help others with a mental health problem and were more confident about seeking help themselves if they needed to.
Movember also continues to work closely with Rugby Union in the UK, with the Harlequins Foundation rolling out Ahead of The Game across their community clubs in south-west London.
In football, following a successful pilot of the program with academy scholars at Brighton FC in 2020, Movember is now working with Fulham FC Foundation to deliver AoTG workshops to 1,500 children across south-west London and Surrey and through their Player Pathway Program, Girls Development Centre, Premier League Kicks, Premier League Inspires, Pan Disability Football Clubs and Fulham FC Academy programs.
Tracy Herd, Movember’s global implementation director of Ahead of the Game, says: “We’re delighted to be working with our partners in the UK to help rollout Ahead of The Game across three major sporting codes.
“Our work in rugby league is helping us to reach thousands of adolescent boys in some of the most deprived parts of England in communities where poor mental health is prevalent and suicide rates are among the highest in the country.
“Ahead of The Game has been proven to increase mental health literacy and boost resilience in the young people who take part. The boys we work with will be better prepared to cope with any setbacks and challenges that lie ahead of them.”
