Mellow Ready
Mellow Ready is a 10 week strengths-based programme for young people aged between 14 and 18, potential parents of the future.
Mellow Ready creates a safe space for young people to:
- Explore their network of relationships
- Discover tools to support their mental health including mindfulness
- Understand their emotions
- Develop empathy and self-compassion
- Find out what really matters to them
- Make informed choices about the future
Each week has a different focus:
“Nothing matters to young people more than relationships! As young people are struggling with developing autonomy from their families of origin and developing peer and romantic relationships, they are at a point when Adverse Childhood Experiences can tip them in the wrong direction. Mellow Ready offers trauma informed relationship based-group support at this pivotal time of brain reorganisation and is great chance to address the growing mental health crisis among young people.”
Dr. Christine Puckering – Mellow Parenting Programme Director
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 friends, and amazingly creative in solving problems.
More than ever however they also experience pressure and worries 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 and risk taking behaviours. As a result they may lack the skills to form positive relationships in the future.
This lack of relationship education and poor emotional literacy can lead to a reduced sense of control over their lives. This and a perceived lack of choice can lead to feeling ‘stuck’, being unable to break out of the situation they find themselves in. In addition, evidence shows that unplanned pregnancies at a young age can contribute to a cycle of poor health and poverty.
Mellow Ready was created in response to these needs to give practitioners working with young people the tools to explore the variety of relationships that they experience in their lives. Research has shown that preconception health, education and care can help break established cycles before parenthood, thus supporting future families and generational change.
