Awarded the prize for Early Intervention at the CYPN awards in 2022, Beyond the Banter was a peer-led project, seeking to empower Black men and boys to have important conversations with peers across communities about mental health. Recognising the value of peer support to boost engagement, the programme trained Peer Educators and equipped them with the skills to open up conversations about emotional and mental wellbeing and encourage boys to get help if they need it. Although they received Mental Health First Aid training, Peer Educators are not experts in mental health but were guided and supported to safely and meaningfully share their experiences and stories to aid better understanding of wellbeing and the help available, and build resilience among a cohort who are statistically more likely to have had experiences impacting their wellbeing due to many factors, especially those related to racism and racial trauma. A key first step of the training programme for Peer Educators was for them to receive psychologist coaching to help them understand their own experiences to better help others. Across the community, Peer Educators planned and hosted workshops, as well as working alongside community partner organisations. Among the cohort receiving the intervention, 75% said they would start having more conversations about mental health and wellbeing with their family and friends.
The peer-led approach was piloted between September 2021 and March 2022 in London. It was developed by Safer London on the background of extensive experience working with young Black men and boys and acknowledging the specific challenges this cohort faces. The Peer Educators, who referred to themselves as the ‘Mind the Mandem’ cohort, had lived experience of the challenges faced by young Black men and boys, and were recruited through an innovative recruitment process, which made use of video applications to get a feel for the potential Peer Educator as a person. The Peer Educators were also later provided with support to consider and pursue their future employment.
A helpful professional’s guide has been developed to share the process, learning and encourage the approach to be adopted more widely.