The charity is Movember’s official implementation partner for Ahead of the Game in England, Wales and mainland Europe.
Ahead of the Game is a mental health literacy and resilience programme that aims to educate young players, (aged 12 to 18 years) and their support networks (parents, coaches, and club volunteers) on the importance of mental health. It teaches them how to spot the signs of poor mental health, how to talk about mental health challenges, and how and when to seek help.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, RL Cares officers Bob Beswick and Steve Hardisty led a Training the Trainer course at a hotel near Manchester where staff from Warrington Wolves, Hull FC, Wigan Warriors and Tottenham Hotspur FC were shown how to deliver this fantastic programme.
The course followed on from recent successful Training the Trainer course delivered by Keith Senior and Andrea Dobson at Feyenoord Rotterdam N.V. and FC Groningen BV in the Netherlands, and in France by Kevin Larroyer and Louis Jouffret.
“The impact that Movember Ahead of the Game is having in rugby league communities cannot be overstated and we’re proud and privileged to be able to share that success as widely as possible,” said Keith, the Head of Wellbeing Programmes at RL Cares.
“The three days we spent with Warrington, Wigan, Hull FC and Spurs were really productive. We’re looking forward to helping those clubs deliver Ahead of the Game locally.”
AOTG was developed by leading experts from the University of Wollongong in Australia and is believed to be the only evidence-based youth mental health literacy programme of its kind in the world. The mental health literacy components of this programme are backed by a five year international programme of scientific evidence.