MindSKILLZ – sports-based mental health programme for young people

Key information
- Organisation: LVCT Health
- Country: Kenya
- Region: Eastern and Southern Africa
- Stage of innovation: Stage 3: Pilot
- Start date: 03/04/2023
- End date: 30/03/2024
- Type of innovation: Service innovation: new or improved service
- Budget: $172,000
- Funders: Grassroot Soccer
Summary of intervention
Adolescent mental health is often overlooked. In Kenya, most mental health projects are curative, primarily focusing on people over 15 years who are already experiencing mental health issues.
Grassroot Soccer and LVCT partnered with the Nairobi and Mombasa County Departments of Health to pilot the MindSKILLZ programme — a preventive, youth-led approach that addresses mental health and equips young people to navigate their futures. The programme targeted 4,060 adolescents in Mombasa and Nairobi counties with impressive results.
Boys and girls aged 10–14 completed 12 sessions aimed at enhancing resilience to mental health issues and addressing trauma. The sports-based MindSKILLZ curriculum connects young people with mentors, building mental health-related knowledge and coping skills while linking participants with acute needs to local mental health and psychosocial support services. Key topics include substance misuse, mindfulness, goal setting, emotional regulation, stigma, stress, anxiety and depression. The project’s proactive, preventive approach addresses mental health before more serious problems arise, making it a pioneering initiative for this age group.
Participants demonstrated substantial improvements in mental health knowledge. Evaluation findings showed MindSKILLZ built resilience and supported participants to motivate others to do the same. MindSKILLZ contributed to a 47% decline in young people with clinical depression and improvements in mental well-being that were sustained over time, indicating that participants had gained long-term resilience. Parents and coaches observed improved school performance. The young people loved the project, finding it fun and engaging; 91% of participants gave it the highest rating and adult stakeholders were very positive.
learnings
One of the challenges was communicating the concept of mental health within community settings. In addition, the programme did not have an intervention or package for parents and caregivers, and demand was very high.
Community engagement, appointing community gatekeepers and coaches from the community, along with adoption by Ministry of Health and Education contributed to the success and helped to contextualise the innovation.
next steps
The programme is being taken to scale in other parts of the country.
sustainability
To ensure sustainability, this innovation will be adapted as part of the school curriculum and mainstreamed within the community health strategy. Implementation will be carried out in available community spaces, integrating the innovation within other preventive and promotive health programmes. Nearly all stakeholders considered MindSKILLZ to be a low-resource programme that could be adopted by the government and sustained.
Meet the coaches of MindSKILLZ in this video.
Tags
Adolescents and young peopleMental healthPeer educatorsPeople living with HIVPeople with disabilitiesPolicy makers