Mental Health is Everybody's Business: NOW Festival 2017
What do you know about mental health? Do you know who it effects and how? Do you know where to go for help? Do you know that it’s estimated 1 in 4 people experience mental health distress at some point in their life? I didn’t have the answers the night I walked into the Epstein theatre. The room filled with excitement, from proud parents and siblings to friends, teachers and organisers. I couldn’t have imagined that there were so many aspects of mental health. I thought topics like autism and schizophrenia would be on the agenda, which would be right to say, however it spans much further to emotional distress caused by a number of situations that we are exposed to in our lifetime.
Leigh Horner, Stage Manager and NOW Festival Mentor, arranged for me to be at the show and gave me a brief run down of what it was about.
SIC: So, what exactly is the NOW festival?
Leigh: The NOW Festival is three nights of performances set up by Merseyside Youth Association (MYA) to help create awareness of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Promoting the Liverpool CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) Partnership, MYA reached out to a series of schools and colleges to deliver the message that ‘’mental health is everybody’s business’’ and something we all have. It can be a common problem that young people struggle with, and that every child has the right to be helped with, along with lots of other rights that young people are entitled to across the world. Each school and college then created a performance for the festival lead by the students that displayed a piece all around mental health and a particular right.
Now if you ask me, for young children to take on a task of such magnitude, tackling a complex topic with numerous factors beneath its surface and convert it into a theatre piece, is an accomplishment that truly shows their well-developed minds. So many human and legal rights to consider and sensitive subjects to work around and make audience-friendly, whilst delivering a message that would inspire us all to be more proactive about mental health. Well, I can honestly say that each and every participant did just that. They all showed that they clearly understood the importance of not only their own rights but every child’s rights and delivered each piece with so much passion and entitlement.
The stage was radiant with empowerment, confidence, and creative freedom as young individuals took the spotlight expressing themselves through art. Pieces such as ‘You Have The Right To Be Alive’ delved into the roots of depression allowing the young stars to build character and charisma as they bravely faced the audience.
The atmosphere in the audience was just as inspiring. I’ll never forget sitting in the theatre as the first group was announced, the room around me filled with applause. A proud audience in attendance for what was set to be a breathtaking night. Performers so young delivering a message so powerful and meaningful, yet to look at them you’d think they’d barely have experienced life.
Brothers and sisters gasped in excitement as their family and friends took the stage. Young ones filled with excitement and laughter as moods were lightened. One of the most beautiful aspects of the event was that each night, as I sat in the crowd I could hear parents coaching their children through the more serious messaging, helping them not only understand their rights but how to exercise them and use them to protect themselves. Serious topics that we’d typically shield from children such as the tale of Child Soldiers in war-torn countries and the UN’s devotion to their right to live freely. Those crucial conversations took place there and then. The performances instantly took effect and gave the young audience’s mind stability and guidance as they come to understand their human rights.
Hosting the Event was life skills coach and CEO of ‘I Am About You’, William Thompson, who did an amazing job explaining to the audience what mental health illness is and how we can all be affected. The message was then amplified a thousand times by the young thespians who delivered with so much energy and passion as they sung, danced and projected the rights of children around the world. The acts brought forth problems that are affecting our community today and some that others may not be aware of.
For more information on Children's rights please see link https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/?gclid=CjwKEAiArIDFBRCe_9DJi6Or0UcSJAAK1nFvlc7iwKRh3whQKacJVzepxRzdQ5P6NRrxuMVfbABEMxoC57Dw_wcB&sissr=1
Massive thanks to MYA and Leigh Horner for letting me be a part of the show and well done to everyone involved in the events leading up to the festival and the great work put in on the day to ensure the festival ran smoothly. I encourage everyone to check out the links below and keep up to date with the work of the MYA and find out if you or someone that you know can get involved.
Photos Taken by David Brownlee: www.davidbrownlee.com
http://www.bullybusters.org.uk/
http://www.addvancedsolutions.co.uk/
WB
