Youth-led mental health solutions for Gwent

Designing, building and creating better mental health services with young people in Gwent.

Our approach

The Mind Our Future Gwent (MoFG) project is a 5-year collaboration between ProMo Cymru and Mind in Gwent, working in partnership with local youth services and Minds across Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen. The partnership supports young people to co-design and develop new solution-focused approaches to young people’s mental health and resilience, using a service design methodology – Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver.

We have recruited 11 paid peer researchers (aged 16-24) across Gwent to guide the project’s direction. Recognising them as true collaborators, they are paid the Real Living Wage to help take this project forward. This unique blend of youth work and employment has increased their commitment, leading to better quality and more impactful work.

To maximise participation, we combine digital youth work methods with invaluable in-person residential retreats for deeper collaborative work and team building.

“My work with ProMo Cymru has had a positive domino effect that has improved my life for the better… I look forward to what the future has to offer and no matter where I go or what I do, it all started here.” – Lexy, Peer Service Designer

Outcomes

Discovery Phase Findings

The Discovery phase established the true needs of Gwent’s young people, gathering deep insights from 203 participants aged 11–27. This comprehensive research highlighted crucial areas of concern, notably:

• Lack of knowledge of available mental health services
• Fear of stigma
• Vital need for trustworthy, flexible, and consistent support.

The Mind Our Future Gwent Discovery Report outlines seven key insights which led to the definition of our three core solution strands: 

1. Campaigning and Social Media
2. Training
3. Stakeholder Engagement

1. Campaigning and Social Media

The Campaigns team, driven by Peer Service Designers who received comprehensive training from ProMo Cymru, runs the Instagram account @KeepInMindGwent.

The content comes directly from those who understand it best: young people themselves. This peer-to-peer sharing offers a far greater impact, resonating authentically and building trust in a way traditional professional campaigns often cannot.

An example is a video that takes a young person through the experience of attending a mental health consultation, offering practical steps to ease anxiety and making the first step less daunting.

Our digital outreach is supplemented by in-person engagement at community events, ensuring the youth-led message reaches every corner of Gwent.

Eli, Peer Service Designer and MoFG Campaigns Coordinator, noted that seeing young people discuss mental well-being has “increased the accessibility of our content… and empowered young people with lived experience to support their community and create the change they want to see.”

2. Training

Our two bespoke mental health conversations training programmes for both young people and professionals is unique because our Peer Service Designers are not just co-designers—they are the lead trainers.

This approach empowers young people in Gwent by equipping them with the skills and confidence to initiate vital mental health conversations and guide peers to local services.

“The training helped me feel more confident on how to start a conversation with someone who is perhaps struggling with their mental health.'” – training participant.

This approach also upskills professionals by providing practical tools and language to help them communicate in a way that makes young people feel heard and supported, ensuring the training goes beyond theory.

Our free training focuses on:

• Enhancing understanding of young people’s mental health and well-being 
• Providing practical tools 
• A chance to practice and be given feedback

Feedback from professionals attending the training included:

“Great to have training produced by young people shared with professionals and a shared language.”

“Just hearing directly from young people was invaluable.”

The success lies in the authentic, lived experience delivered by the young trainers, showing that supportive coaching can transform them into compelling facilitators.put into sharing this with our project team. Everyone has gone away sharing what a great experience it was”. 

3. Stakeholder Engagement

The Stakeholder Engagement group actively connects, networks, and collaborates with professionals and organisations to advance the ambitious goals outlined in the Welsh Government’s 10-year mental health and well-being strategy.

One of our key successes was working with the SPACE-Wellbeing Panels (Single Point of Access for Children’s Emotional Wellbeing). Our team noticed a major barrier; young people could not easily find or understand the self-referral forms. Peer Service Designers worked directly with the panels to suggest changes, resulting in a clearer, youth-friendly self-referral process.

Tracey Smith, SPACE Well-Being Team Manager said, “MoFG has significantly influenced us by embedding the voice of young people into service design, enabling co-production through peer-led initiatives and inspiring a culture shift toward youth-driven mental health support across Gwent.”

This is a powerful demonstration of youth voice influencing systemic change.

In addition, we have created a strong community of practice in Gwent by bringing professionals who support young people’s mental health together twice a year in Newport. These bi-annual meet-ups offer stakeholders a safe space to share best practice, problem-solve and learn from each other.

Anyone working with young people or within mental health services in Gwent is welcome to attend these events. 

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Our project’s success lies in its genuine commitment to the principles of co-design, ensuring that young people are not just beneficiaries but are the primary architects of change.