Life Education Wessex

Life Education Wessex is a children’s charity that delivers emotional health and wellbeing education which allows children to build resilience and good mental health. The organisation works with young people as well as their families to encourage healthy choices which reduces the need for more drastic intervention later on in life. 

Life Education Wessex received a grant from the Hays Travel Foundation to fund mental health workshops for children in schools across Southampton and Portsmouth. The organisation found that mental health workshops would be beneficial due to raising concerns surrounding the mental health of children following the pandemic and the disruption to their education, as well as the effects of the cost-of-living crisis on families. 

The mental health workshops delivered by Life Education Wessex are adapted to different age groups, and follow themes such as emotional self-regulation, the brain and stress as well as aspirations and confidence building. For the sessions for younger children, there is the opportunity to interact with Harold the Puppet which allows the children to feel motivated to engage in the sessions and overall can boost happiness.

Life Education Wessex aims to develop the mental health workshops which will also increase children’s knowledge and understanding of how the brain works, as well as teaching them coping strategies to manage the ups and downs of life.