FOOTBALL is increasingly being recognised as a valuable tool for practical mental health therapy, and MFC Foundation is very much at the forefront of this endeavour.

MFC Foundation’s ‘Think with Your Feet’ mental health football sessions have rapidly expanded since they began in February 2015 and this is mainly due to the ever growing partnership with MIND and their ‘Get set to go project’ which refers service users into our weekly football sessions.

As well as weekly football session participants are also given the opportunity to represent MFC Foundation in national competitions ran by similar initiatives at other football clubs.

The team, currently ranked 1^st in the country after winning the National Mental Health Championships hosted by Everton in the Community, have won a range of silverware this year after wins in Northampton, Derby and Rotherham. Alongside this a group of participants were lucky enough to go to Munich, thanks to fundraising and sponsors, and compete in the EASI-Regenbogen-Cup which they also won in extra time.

The impact of the sessions goes above and beyond keeping fit and playing football.

“Not so long ago, I tried to kill myself and was also harming myself. Now, through football and MFC Foundation’s football team I can see a point to my life. I enjoy spending time there and have made loads of friends. All the lads and the coaches are superb, I love playing with MFC Foundation – I love the Boro, but not as much as the Boro loves me.” – Think With Your Feet participant

We also hold an annual Social Inclusion tournament, which this year alongside Everton’s National Championships, was the joint biggest tournament in the UK attracting teams from as far as Carlisle and Wrexham.

If you would like to know more, please email enquiries@mfcfoundation.co.uk

MFC Foundation would like to extend our best wishes to Deputy Head Craig McManus, who is jetting off to Seoul to manage England at the 19th instalment of the Homeless World Cup.

A native Scotsman, Craig represented his homeland as a player in the 2016 finals before heading south of the border to coach the Three Lions in the capital.

He subsequently entered the dugout for the 2018 and 2019 Homeless World Cups, hosted in Mexico and Cardiff’s Bute Park respectively, with England ending both competitions in Tier 4.

Despite being hosted on an annual basis, the Three Lions have not partaken in the tournament since the turn of the decade and enter the 2024 finals as ranked outsiders.

Craig and the team will find out their group-stage opponents in Friday’s draw before the opening round of fixtures take place on Saturday. All matches will be streamed, for free, on FIFA+.