Our Purpose

Our purpose is to improve mental health outcomes in community sport by embedding sustainable, peer-led support systems within clubs. The program builds mental health literacy, reduces stigma and equips club players and members with practical skills. The model removes financial or resource barriers for clubs, whilst delivering scalable measurable mental health outcomes across community sport.

With your help in Year 1, Mates in Mind will:

Evidence strongly supports the proposition that embedding mental health champions and training within community sports clubs improves mental health outcomes, reduces suicide and self-harm risk factors, by:

• Reaching priority populations, including male and female youth and adult males
• Improving help-seeking and help-offering
• Reducing stigma
• Strengthening social connection
• Enabling earlier intervention

As well as the strong protective benefits of physical activity, Clubs are perfect for fostering greater social connection, mateship and mental wellbeing.

Clubs operate as strong community hubs for wider families to socialise and celebrate together.

Across Australia, it is estimated that over 12 million people belong to a community sports club. In Sydney alone, over 4,000 local community clubs connect with over 1.8 million members each year.

Community Club membership profiles average 75% junior/youth and the balance adults/masters, with 80% of volunteers and committee roles filled by adults.

Through community clubs, Mates in Mind can reach and equip a true cross-section of our community, partnering to build long term mental health, resilience and wellbeing.

Fear of judgement and stigma are amongst the strongest predictors of delayed help-seeking. Mental health programs which are implemented within smaller community, settings such as sports clubs, consistently report reduced stigma and greater cultural permission to talk, as mental health becomes normalised through clubs, especially when driven by respected insiders (champions).

Building Mental Health Capacity Community Sports Clubs

Embedding mental health champions and structured mental-health training in community sports clubs in NSW is likely to reduce risk factors for self-harm and suicide and improve early intervention by:

• Improving help-seeking and help-offering
• Reducing stigma
• Strengthening social connection
• Enabling earlier intervention

And, although such models do not replace clinical care, they reduce pressure and improve focused outcomes within clubs and across communities.

Embedding mental health champions in community sports clubs is likely one of the most cost-effective mental health investments available, not because it treats illness, but because it prevents escalation across thousands of people for the cost of treating a few dozen clinically.