Tash, Gaye Rutherford (Director and Chair of the Fairbrother Foundation), and Alex, all ready to continue collectively supporting the Tasmanian sporting community for positive mental health and club culture.
At this point in time, we have been unsuccessful in securing ongoing funding for our Stay ChatTY Sports Program. It gives us great delight however, to announce a major financial contribution to the ongoing delivery of that program across Tasmania.
The Fairbrother Foundation announced in October that they will be contributing $40,000 each year for the next 3 years towards this invaluable community program.
Since 2018, the Sports Program has reached more than 6,000 athletes in 150 clubs and 22 types of sports around the state.
After our workshops, almost 98% of athletes who take part feel more able to look after their own mental health, and 99% feel more confident to help a teammate in need. We’ve heard stories of players speaking up about their own struggles, teams rallying around them, clubs supporting players through counselling, and communities getting involved in promoting mental health messages because of our Sports Program.
“After seeing firsthand the positive impact of SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY’s work, with Mitch and his team presenting annually to Fairbrother’s apprentice groups on the critical topic of mental health and how to support your own and those of persons around you, the Fairbrother Foundation was delighted when Stay ChatTY accepted our approach back in 2018 to provide ongoing financial support,” said Gaye Rutherford, Director & Chair of the Fairbrother Foundation.
“Being able to significantly increase our support now in 2023 to help the Sports Program strongly aligns with our Foundation focus areas of health, education, youth and local communities, and we are very proud that the employees and key stakeholders at Fairbrother whose work and dedication underpins the Fairbrother Foundation, can now know their support is having this ongoing and wide-reaching impact.”
We are pleased to be able to continue delivering these outcomes in local sporting clubs, because we know that increasing mental health literacy can lead to more positive attitudes toward help-seeking and helping, and more positive, open conversations about mental health.
Sporting clubs are cornerstones in our community, and if we can help to create mentally aware, mentally healthy, and supportive club cultures, it will have a positive ripple effect into our communities more broadly.
Thank you so much to Gaye and the Fairbrother Foundation for your ongoing support through all these years. We love working alongside Fairbrother, and are so grateful for this incredible show of support!
