Someone recently asked for a longer blog post for ‘newbies’ and as I was so grateful for audience participation I felt compelled to oblige.
It also feels quite timely to reflect on where we are almost seven years since we first began.
This time seven years ago we had recently submitted our first (of three attempts – perhaps that should have been a sign that setting up a charity was going to be hard) application to become a registered charity. So for all you newbie/s here is the GRIT story, in a nutshell (the actual nut of the GRIT story most definitely cannot be compressed to a blog post).
Seven years later we anticipate we will support over 600 young people over the next year.
That’s a huge number. I’d like to take you on a trip down memory lane.
I first toyed with the idea of setting up a charity in 2016 when I came across social media and blog posts which showed distressing pictures of self-harm and seemed to glamourise a subject that was all too close to my own adolescent experience over twenty years earlier. Back then I was working as GP partner locally and had three young children. I could also see the higher numbers of young people who were self-harming coming in through the door and we struggled in having anywhere to send them unless they met the criteria for CAMHS.
One school we met with reported they were ‘overwhelmed’ with young people self-harming and had at least 50 young people in school who were doing so. I felt strongly that we needed to provide an alternative approach to emotional distress, which enabled a young person to feel empowered, not talk if they didn’t want to and to find something else in their lives that they could cling to when they felt overwhelmed and alone.
With this in mind GRIT was born.
We initially started with a programme that included non-contact boxing, mentoring, yoga and equine facilitated coaching on an as needed basis. Through our learning with young people, we quickly learned what they engaged with most and what they benefited from. To ensure equity we evolved the non-contact boxing to include group-based coaching. All was going well. To raise funds we held a ball, we climbed a mountain (Snowdon), people ran a marathon or an ultramarathon and generous people donated money from various trusts and grants. We visited No 10 to discuss what we were doing and continued to try and raise awareness in schools. Meanwhile GRIT was taking up an increasing amount of my time, so I resigned from my partnership and took up a part time salaried GP role, which was meant to be a temporary situation.
Then Covid struck and everything became really hard. We worked round the clock to develop an online offering and were able to do this within a week. It wasn’t the same though and it was hard watching young people struggle without being able to support them in the same way. It also had a significant impact on our income as fundraising events got cancelled and the competition between charities for the finite pots of money increased.
I had always seen GRIT as my fourth baby and had adapted to it as such – working less in GP and volunteering more time to enable the charity to grow but in a further plot twist I then became unexpectedly pregnant with my actual fourth baby who was born in the second lockdown of 2021. I can’t say that was an easy time as I couldn’t take maternity leave and had four children at home, much more than they would have been otherwise, but we got through it.
Just as I was about to return to GP work we were then offered the opportunity to work in partnership with the NHS by hosting adolescent health and well-being coaches which we trained to work specifically in our methods. This, combined with a very generous grant, enabled us to support over 300 young people in one year. This has led to us taking on a CEO in a more formal role and employing a team of people to support the administration side of GRIT (there is a lot) and a fundraising team (we need a lot).
We are projected to support almost 600 young people next year. Our impact report and feedback demonstrates that we are having a positive impact on young people’s lives. Our coaching team has grown from a couple of people doing a few hours a week to eight part time coaches who are all familiar with our methodology and how we support young people through the ups and downs of adolescence. Schools we support say they no longer feel overwhelmed by the mental health needs of young people (that is not solely down to GRIT – there are many excellent resources now available which support young people in different ways but it’s nice to know we have been part of it). It feels like the original fourth baby is starting to grow up after the somewhat turbulent toddler years whilst the actual fourth baby is starting nursery after the somewhat turbulent toddler years.
I think its timely that as I was writing this post I had a call from the team to say that GRIT had been shortlisted for the GP Practice Awards 2024 - Clinical Improvement award: Mental health.
The awards will be held on the 6th December, almost seven years to the day when GRIT was first awarded charity status. Regardless of whether we win or not I think there will be a lot to celebrate.
Whether you are a veteran supporter of GRIT or perhaps a newbie to the charity and our work, thank you so much for supporting us so that we can continue and grow our service for the young people of Hertfordshire.
If you would like to support us in any way, whether your time, financially, with your expertise or through an event please do not hesitate to contact our fundraising team - fundraising@gritcharity.org
