The #YouAreEnough campaign season review

The #YouAreEnough campaign reached the end of its first season with a launch event at Darlington on 25th April – and now almost twenty clubs are part of this community-driven mental health work, as FSA National Council member Andrew Madaras explains…

The #YouAreEnough campaign links clubs in the FSA’s Community-Owned Clubs network with their local Mind charities, with the aim of building long-term relationships between clubs and their local charities. 

There are three simple components to the campaign:

• Clubs will share mental health information and campaigns from their local Mind charities on their social media platforms, to amplify the messages and reach an audience that would be otherwise unreachable. By doing so we empower supporters who need support with their mental health to start their recovery journey.
• Clubs will commit to a minimum of one fundraising event per season.
• The FSA will facilitate the training of Mental Health First Aiders. 

The FSA and #YouAreEnough want to play their part in addressing the stigma and challenge mistruths and misconceptions around mental health.

#YouAreEnough signifies that community-owned clubs are safe spaces for people living with mental health conditions and the presence of Mental Health First Aiders at all home matches provides an initial point of contact and the opportunity to start a conversation and signpost to appropriate support services and help. 

The FSA’s community-owned club network manager Richard Irving (left) and Andrew Madaras (right) with Jemma Gregory from Darlington Mind.

The campaign will change people’s lives. It’s a bold statement but one with plenty of anecdotal evidence that highlighting mental health issues really does empower people to address mental health issues they have tried to cope with independently. 

The programme also aims to address alarming public attitudes and misconceptions regarding mental health and people with lived experience.

The Mind Big Report 2025 not only revealed that most people self-reporting mental health difficulties will not consult a health care professional, but also that one in four adults would be unwilling to work with someone with a mental health problem, and almost half of respondents (46%) thought people living with schizophrenia should be able to “pull themselves together”. 

The campaign kicked off at Bury in the summer of 2025 and quickly moved on to Hereford in August, built on the work started at my club Dunstable Town. 

The following community-owned clubs are now part of the #YAE programme, Bury, Hereford, Bilston Town, Clapton CFC, Exeter City, Bath City, Darlington, Enfield Town, East Thurrock, Grays Athletic, Hendon, Merthyr Town, Wythenshawe, FC United of Manchester, Banbury Utd, Hinkley AFC, Fisher & 1874 Northwich. 

The FSA would like to express its gratitude to Hayley Jarvis (Mind head of physical activity) Cam Miller (Mind physical activity & development lead) & Judy Bratt (Mind physical activity coordinator) for their support.