The milife Blue project was initiated by the Epping Forest Youth Council after a conference they led for local young people found that mental health was one of the greatest concerns amongst young people in the district. After EFYC carried out a great deal of research and planning, they received a substantial grant from Epping Forest District Council to put together a program that would support and resource young people across the district to better understand a manage their own emotional wellbeing and also know where they could go for more help.

 

EFYC invited the Red Balloon Family Foundation, a local charity which supports a wide variety of children's, youth and families projects along with NELFT, the NHS emotional wellbeing and mental health service (EWMHS) provider in this part of Essex, to work with them to create the miLife roadshow to visit all seven schools as well as producing a number of associated resources including this website. The partnership was joined from 2016 by Essex Youth Service who made additional resources available to the project through a commission from the Epping Forest Youth Strategy Group.

 

If you would like to contact someone to discuss the project, please email dbutler@eppingforestdc.gov.uk in the first instance.

 

We understand that being a parent to a child with mental health issues can be a challenge. Our passion is to help young people and parents understand what mental health is, how to care for our mental health day-to-day, and to make sure parents and young people get the support when problems do arise.

 

Please do look around the website to explore the advice that we are offering to young people. If you are looking for someone for your child to speak to in person, we would recommend they speak to a trusted teacher or youth leader.

 

We are also pleased to offer a list of organisations who have put together extensive resources for parents.