As a co-founder of State of Mind and the elected CEO of League 13 it gives me great pleasure on to announce a ground breaking partnership this week
The two organisations will work together on initiatives that will assist the promotion of mental fitness and wellbeing to rugby league players, coaches, mentors and league officials (both professional and amateur) and the wider community, in order to enable individuals to develop knowledge, personal resilience and self-awareness so that they are able to improve their ability to cope with stress, adversity and other life events.
State of Mind in partnership with our players and within RL highlights the value of getting major sporting role models to air their emotional fears and worries in a way that ordinary people could not, and this has been achieved with great subtlety and sensitivity which many previous campaigns have not. State of Mind created a brilliant concept. We have come together to ensure that its freshness and honesty will not be lost but will be enhanced.
The teams of State of Mind and League 13 have the ability to be the central hub that will protect its integrity and honesty of approach. The current climate presents a unique opportunity for further ground breaking partnership working in RL, mental health and perhaps sport in general that we have never seen before. We want to develop a partnership that is as effective as possible delivering support to our members at times of personal stress, anxiety, pressure and adversity.
Rugby league professionals face the same pressures and strains as we all experience; what we seek to do with the help and support of State of Mind is to provide those vital support mechanisms.
This is another partnership which signals League 13 as a forward thinking, 21st century players association capable of working with all for the support of not only its members but the game as a whole. If we save one more life through our collaboration then our efforts have been worthwhile.
My Chairman, Jon Wilkin, St Helens international star and Chairman of League 13 said; “I worked with State of Mind in 2011 during the making of their first film in assisting their attempts to improve levels of awareness.
Everyone at all Super League clubs embraced this ground breaking work helping deliver the message in a sympathetic way. I have always seen this as a player led issue and as Chairman of League 13 on behalf of all our members I am delighted we will now work in unison with State of Mind in formal partnership working together to tackle issues of stigma and increase levels of awareness throughout our profession, our fan base and supporting communities. This is truly ground breaking
State of Mind was present at all 2013 Round 25 fixtures with a variety of initiatives to spread the awareness message amongst all fans and I was there with them.
We have produced a new film Trojan Horse with our media partners, Mocha Productions, to announce the arrival of Round 25. We have also produced a film for our 2013 State of Mind Family campaign.
The link below will take you o both all the films. If you feel able I should be grateful if you could publicise this initiative and perhaps include on your websites.