Mellow Ready

Mellow Ready is a twelve-session group programme specifically created for young people between the ages of 14 and 18, potential parents of the future. We recognise that enabling young people to make sense of their own experience and how it shapes them will support them to attain and build better relationships.

The groups are facilitated using the principles of trauma-informed practice, attachment theory and the skills and knowledge required to develop increased levels of resilience.

The sessions provide young people with the opportunity to explore and understand their network of relationships. We seek to provide them with the tools to think flexibly, reduce stress and make informed decisions both now and in the future.

The materials are flexible to allow activities to be adapted for your setting. Young People are provided with a Mellow Ready Book and Pack.

Each session lasts around 90 minutes but practitioners can extend or shorten activities as necessary.

Mellow Ready is delivered in single-gender groups of up to eight participants, online groups are recommended to be six participants or below.

Young people have amazing strengths and capabilities. They are willing to try new things and are not frightened to take risks and enjoy the moment. They can be passionate about justice and fairness, hugely loyal to their friendship groups and amazingly creative in solving problems.

However, more than ever they also experience pressure and worry as they transition into adulthood. They are trying to figure out who they are and how they relate to others as well as coping with internal and external messages about how to be and what to do with their lives. Those who have grown up without healthy, loving relationships and influences may be particularly vulnerable to poorer mental health, risk-taking behaviours and as a result, lack the skills to form positive relationships in the future.

Lack of relationship education and poor emotional literacy can also feed into a reduced sense of agency and perceived lack of choice, which can leave young people feeling that they are stuck and unable to break out of the situation they are in. In addition to this evidence shows that having a pregnancy at a young age can contribute to a cycle of poor health and poverty.

Research has shown that preconception health, education and care can help break established cycles before parenthood, thus supporting future families and generational change.

In the context of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, which saw face-to-face group delivery become impossible, Mellow took the opportunity to revise and adapt the programme to become suitable for online delivery. The content of the single programme is appropriate for both ‘face-to-face’ delivery and ‘facilitated online’ delivery.