At Banbury United, we operate at the heart of the community, providing friendships, company and purpose for spectators, volunteers, staff and players. Not everyone is doing OK all the time and we want to be there, where you are: pitch-side, to help.

We were therefore really interested to receive an email from Andrew Madaras, the Chairman of Dunstable Town FC. Andrew was elected onto the Football Supporters’ Association’s (FSA) National Council in 2023 through the Community Owned Clubs' (COC) Network. His intention as a former NHS Mental Health Nurse was to promote mental health around not only the COC network, but also across the FSA in general. He has established a partnership between the FSA & Mind, the UK's largest mental health charity and been behind the launch of #YouAreEnough (#YAE) across the COC network.

Here is a link to the campaign web page: #YouAreEnough - Football Supporters' Association.

#YAE requires one volunteer from each participating club to act as the liaison between Andrew and the charity. The club volunteer arranges for mental health awareness information from Mind to be shared across the club's social media platforms and arranges a minimum of one fundraising event each season for the Charity. In return the Charity will train a minimum of one club volunteer to become a Mental Health First Aider, who will be present at all home matches. There should be no financial cost to the clubs.

There are already collaborations at Bury FC, Hereford FC, Bilston Town FC & Exeter City FC with programmes in place at Bath City and Clapton CFC.

We’d love to find someone interested in leading this initiative on behalf of Banbury United, who would be trained, at no cost to them, as a Mental Health First Aider. It should be assumed that this would suit someone who attends home matches on a fairly regular basis.

If this is you or someone you know, then please contact clairedumbreck@banburyunitedfc.co.uk for more information.