Oxfordshire Youth and Oxfordshire Mind are once again collaborating to deliver Youth in Mind 2020, a mental health conference for anyone working with children and young people. The event will take place on 12th February 2020, at the King’s Centre in Osney Mead and will feature leading speakers, workshops, an exclusive performance and stalls from a wide variety of organisations working to improve the mental health of children and young people.
Last year’s event was given a letter of commendation by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board stating that “it had great impact, raised the important safeguarding issue of mental and emotional well-being and was able to communicate effectively to colleagues from the statutory, voluntary and community sector.”
Building on that success, this year’s event aims to be even more informative, innovative and inspiring. The organisers have listened to the delegates and will be covering the topics that they felt are most necessary to address, as well as providing more resources and toolkits for use in settings with young people.
Paul Farmer, CEO of national Mind is this year’s opening keynote speaker. He will bring cutting edge information from his role as the Chair of an exciting new government mental health and wellbeing advisory group to improve the lives of school and college staff across the country. Paul stated, “I’m really excited to be speaking at this innovative conference in Oxfordshire. Only by ensuring teachers are well supported can we expect them to thrive and deliver the best outcomes for everyone – pupils, parents and the colleagues they work alongside.”
The other keynote speaker is Ndidi Okezie, CEO of UK Youth. Bringing a wealth of experience from the public and voluntary sector, Ndidi is passionate about social justice, quality access for underserved communities and the amplification of youth voice. Lucy Butler, Director of Children’s Services at Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) will also be giving talks in the morning session.
Delegates at the event will be able to choose from a wide range of workshops to attend, ranging from ‘Protective Behaviours’ to ‘Gambling, Gaming and Online Resilience’. Putting on an event of this scale, would simply not be possible without the support of sponsors. Priory Healthcare, the headline sponsor, will also be running a workshop on ‘Teenage Depression’, presented by Dr Hayley van Zwanenberg.
There will also be an exclusive performance by Mandala Theatre Company and a not-to-be-missed expert panel discussing mental health equality featuring Andrea King, Becky Suanders, Dr Clara Barker, Dr Marie Tidball, Mo Patel and Yasmin Sidhwa. And the day will be closed out with a spoken word piece from local youth worker and poet, Rory (Rawz) Campbell.