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Liverpool Football Club’s official charity, LFC Foundation, and children’s charity Action for Children are celebrating a three-year collaboration which has helped improve the mental health of young people in secondary schools across the Liverpool City region.

Over 700 young people have completed the ‘On-Target’ programme – with almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of those taking part experiencing reduced feelings of low mood, anxiety and depression.

On-Target works with small groups of young people identified as being in need of support through a questionnaire assessment.

Those young people are invited to a series of engaging workshops focused on three key areas: understanding and empathy about mental health, coping strategies and self-care, and the importance of talking and dealing with mental health concerns.

A report into the programme revealed significant increases in young people feeling more confident (74 per cent), improved self-esteem (69%) and improved relationships with family and friends (59 per cent).

Across Liverpool, 10 schools took part in the programme including St. Francis Xavier College and Dixons Fazakerley Academy, with pupils from both schools recently attending a celebration event at Anfield stadium.

Kim Horlick, Locality Service Manager for Merseyside at Action for Children, said: “Children and young people continue to face unprecedented pressures and uncertainty for their futures as they grow up in the shadow of the pandemic and ongoing cost of living crisis

“Action for Children know from our own mental health services how vital it is to step in early with support before mental health problems escalate.

“We are incredibly proud to have worked with LFC Foundation, who have been committed to working with us in bringing our vital On-Target programme to those young people across the city that need it most.”

Andrew Hanlon, Mental Health Programme Lead, LFC Foundation, said: “The On-Target programme has been a huge success over the last three years. Working in collaboration with Action for Children has been a pleasure and we’ve been able to fuse together the expertise of both organisations to benefit of the young people of Merseyside.

“On-Target is a fantastic programme that has helped thousands of young people and I am very proud of what this programme has achieved.”

The On-Target programme will run until the end of July 2023.