Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid - 2022 and beyond
Since the relaunch of Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) after the lockdowns, I have delivered SMHFA for a number of charities, educational institutions and a number of local and national organisations - particularly those working with families, in education and with minority groups. While the SMHFA course content is relatively fixed, there can be a degree of flexibility in the delivery to help offer context within any specific sector on the course. Through meeting with clients ahead of courses to understand their needs, I’ve been able to deliver the SMHFA course as prescribed, but at the same time in the context of every group of learners.
Interested in booking a Mental Health First Aid course or want to know more? contact me through the channels in the top right corner - or check out the SMHFA page here
SMHFA - What people are saying
“Chris was a great course lead, very engaging and approachable and constantly checking in to make sure we were ok, particularly through some of the more difficult subject matter was appreciated. Couldn't have asked for a better person to lead us all through this course. I found the information, particularly on the lesser understood mental health conditions, to be very insightful and would recommend this course to colleagues and others. “
“Chris was an excellent trainer, very personable, approachable and real. He encouraged everyone to participate but made sure everyone felt safe. The venue was a good space and allowed for effective small and whole group discussion with appropriate comfortable break out spaces if needed by anyone in the group. Thank you!”
“Absolutely superb course. The trainer Chris could not have been better - he really made the course. I couldn't recommend it highly enough. “
JUMP & RUNFree
Delivered in Glasgow, Fife, Kingston(Jamaica) & Port-of-Spain(Trinidad)
JUMP is a community project that fuses physical theatre, storytelling and the movement discipline of Parkour – it’s a world-renowned programme for young people promoting mental & physical health, leadership, confidence and creativity.
Using the grace, flow and principles of Parkour, participants explore the challenges and obstacles they face growing up in an age of unprecedented and unpredictable change - embarking on their own hero journey through the project.
This video is a preview of our work-in-progress from 2018. Participants in the Run Free project are young men, ages 13 to 21, from Parade Gardens in central Kingston, Jamaica.
Want to install JUMP in your school or community? Contact me on the links at the top and download the brochure here
Team of the Year Award
Over 2019/20 at See Me the team’s efforts were recognised at the National Youth Work Awards. Along with my manager we supported a team of about 50 volunteers who have lived experience of mental health problems. Their role at See Me is to inform, develop and deliver bespoke mental health awareness training and sessions on stigma and discrimination in the Children and Young People Sector. I have taken a number of these volunteers through their full journey with See Me – from getting them involved, training, development and in some cases into employment.
I facilitated training for volunteers, lead workshops and developed materials working with schools, local authorities, private businesses and public organisations and a wide range of clients across Scotland. This included delivering Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid for workplaces in the Children and Young People’s Sector.
Glasgow Parkour Coaching
In 2008 I founded one of the first Parkour Coaching organisations - delivering Parkour services across the sports, arts, youth and commercial performance sectors. This video charts the variety of work in the first 4 years of GPC, with a number of pioneering projects and ‘firsts’ in the Parkour world. In 2013 GPC also formed a performance team who worked with clients such as Nike, Mercedez-Benz and Airspace.
Roots of Movement
I co-founded Roots of Movement(ROM) - Scotland’s National Parkour event running from 2010-2017. ROM also formed as Scotland’s National Committee for Parkour to bring together communities from around the country and share good practice.
A highlight of ROM aside from the events was securing over 10k of funding from the Scottish Government through The Big Lottery fund to qualify a number of coaches in communities around Scotland. This was fundamental in the growth of the class and coaching infrastructure in Scotland
We’re Here Because We’re Here.
Regional Lead - Shetland Team
We're Here Because We're Here was an artwork in the form of an event, devised by Jeremy Deller, that occurred across the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, which it commemorated
Throughout the day, some 1,600 volunteers, all men, dressed in replica World War I British army uniforms, appeared in groups at railway stations, shopping centres and other places. Each volunteer represented an individual, named, soldier who died on the first day of the battle. When approached, they did not speak, but instead handed cards to members of the public, bearing the name, age and regiment of the person they represented, and the hashtag #wearehere
I co-ordinated, recruited, trained a team of men in Shetland for their appearance over 6 weeks in the lead up to the event and worked with the UK-Wide team to develop the training scheme and movement.
With the planning happening in secret, I had to recruit the volunteers without actually revealing the project - which took a lot of trust building and convincing!
Got an idea for an artistic project or movement project? contact me on the links above - I’m on social and email.