Arsenal and England Ladies first team football players,  Steph Houghton and Ellen White, recently visited Arsenal in the Community’s ‘How are you feeling today?’ programme delivered by the Imagine Your Goals initiative - part of the Time to Change programme - and funded by the Premier League and Sport Relief.

The programme is not a football and sports project in the traditional sense. It is a social inclusion project which uses football and other physical activities as a tool to engage with people who have mental health problems.  In a bid to attract more women to the group the visit from Steph and Ellen was warmly welcomed.

Recognising the benefits that physical activity can have for people who have a mental illness, the programme consists of weekly football sessions. Time to Change, England’s biggest mental health anti-stigma programme, run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, aims to get more people with mental health problems involved in sport to help to combat the isolation that people often face. The powerful influence of football also helps to level the playing field for people with a mental illness.

To run the scheme, Arsenal in the Community also work in partnership with Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust and the London Borough of Islington, whose campaign slogan ‘How are you feeling today?’ has been adopted by the Imagine your Goals project locally. Other activities including cycling, Target Golf, bowling, hockey, wall climbing, are also organised, and the group attends many tournaments across London and with other Imagine Your Goals clubs across the country.

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For more information please email Hayley Richardson, Time to Change Senior Media Officer or call 0208 2152 358/ 07789 721 966

More photos from Imagine Your Goals events

Find out more about our Imagine Your Goals project >>