In the spirit of World Mental Health Day, I had a chat with Brook Marshall, Project Director of Dundee-based mental health charity Feeling Strong. We’ve been up and running for around a year and a half, and we’re growing quickly. I’m on the Operations Team, so I get to hear about the things all of our incredible leads are up to, but I thought Brook would be the perfect person to tell you a little bit more about who we are and what we do.
[Photo credit – Feeling Strong]
Hi Brook! To get started, can you tell me if there was a defining moment for you that made you realise that Dundee was badly in need of a youth-specific mental heath charity? If so, what was it?
“I would probably say that the moment I knew that Dundee had a need for something like Feeling Strong was when I was admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit at Ninewells Hospital. Needless to say, I had quite a negative experience whilst I was in the unit. They didn’t seem equipped to handle my needs, not only as a young person, but also as someone who has very different mental health challenges from what they were used to. I guess my experiences of the system in general have been quite negative, with the exception of finally accessing psychological services which changed my life. However, most people aren’t lucky enough to get that help and that’s why we built Feeling Strong – to help those that the system can’t.”
What’s been your biggest challenge over the past year or so? How did you overcome it?
“Our biggest challenge has been accessing funding in a very difficult environment. Because of government cuts and Brexit, securing funding is very challenging at the moment. That being said, we are making the best of a bad situation and we’re still growing quickly for such a young organisation – we just always want to do more for those who need our help.”
What’s your favourite part of being the Project Director for such a unique charity? Aside from working with me, of course.
“The thing I love most about my job would probably be how rewarding it is; seeing how far we’ve come in such a short period of time, seeing the impact we’ve had for the young people we work with, and seeing how much the opportunities we provide have helped our staff and volunteers too. I’m excited to come to work each day because I know that the work we do matters and that makes all the difference. What I’m most proud of though is making sure that Feeling Strong is an entirely youth-led organisation, giving opportunities to those who otherwise wouldn’t have them, and fighting to show that service-user-led models bring so much value to developing services and winning the trust of those we’re here to help.”
[Photo credit – Feeling Strong]
Which of our projects have you had the most fun with?
“I’ve had fun with all of the projects that I’ve been involved with at Feeling Strong, but I’ve just developed one that I know is going to be an absolute joy to deliver. Our newest project is called Turn Up the Heat and is designed to promote cooking as a recovery and self-care exercise, encouraging young people to pick up the spatula, get in the kitchen, and look after themselves. We’re also going to be making a self-care cookbook from the recipes that we create with the young people who take part in the program, and we’ll be distributing them as widely as possible across Dundee to make sure that people have the information they need to look after themselves and make tasty treats!”
If we had infinite funding, what would be your dream project to run?
“My dream project would probably be one that makes sure every single person in Dundee has access to a mental health first-aider or an ASIST suicide-prevention-trained individual. We’re going to be working on this moving forward and we know it’s not going to be cheap, but it is absolutely crucial to make sure that our communities are as safe as possible. If you’d like to help us make that dream a reality, you can always get involved with Feeling Strong by volunteering or fundraising – both of which are equally valuable and make a huge difference!”
We’re up to some exciting things at the minute which I’m so excited to share as they happen. You can keep up with us at @FeelingStrongUK on Twitter and Instagram, and you can like us on Facebook here.