Comic Relief funded group helps children's anger

The children who have come to the sessions said they "loved Empower"

Young people who attend a Comic Relief funded project to improve mental health said it had helped them control their anger and learn it was "OK" to talk to people.

Empower runs weekly sports sessions through Watford Football Club's Community Sports and Education Trust.

At the sessions, children aged nine to 12 play sport including badminton and dodgeball and have access to a psychotherapist, who uses play therapy to identify and address challenging behaviour.

George, who attends, said: "It helps me when I get angry. When I get angry I can't control myself, but they teach me how to control it and what to do."

Charlotte Wilmer-Barbrook (left), Caoimhe Walker (middle) and Emily Tavinor (right) run the Empower programme

Caoimhe Walker, who helps run the group, said: "I want to make a massive difference to these young people - and seeing young people go from the first week to the 24th week, when they finish the programme and graduate at Vicarage Road, seeing that difference in them is a massive achievement."

She said she had seen children that were "afraid, upset and highly anxious" grow in confidence.

Riley, who also attends, said: "The team building and mindfulness taught me that it's OK to talk to people you like, talk to people you trust, it's OK to talk to them.

"I definitely feel a lot better than I did before I started to come here."

Charlotte Wilmer-Barbrook, a psychotherapist, said some children arrived who had been experiencing difficulties at home.

"They can demonstrate sometimes their anger, their frustration, their sadness through how they interact with the other children, and that can come out when they're playing sport.

"What we're doing each week is enabling them, with the use of strategies with their work books, to look at how they can better manage those situations."

George added: "I've made new friends and it's really fun playing the sports with them, and it makes me really happy when we do the work in the booklets."

Caoimhe Walker said she loved her job

Ms Wilmer-Barbrook said new funding from Comic Relief had enabled the young people "to meet every term, so that they can link up with the friends they've made here and keep practising the strategies they've used and learnt".

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