Mental Health Charity Conquers the Dragons' Den

The mental health charity, which works with young people in North and West Belfast, will use the funds to develop a new programme that combines games and play with mental health.  

The new initiative, known as Mental Wealth Games, has already been trialled with 800 young people. The Dragons’ Den funds will allow the programme to be accredited and rolled out across Northern Ireland.

Joe Donnelly, who helped set up TAMHI following the death of a friend, said:

“Mental health is a dreadful blight in our society.  One in five people in Northern Ireland suffer from mental health issues and we have the highest suicide rate in Europe, yet over 70% of people who commit suicide are unknown to social services.

“It’s a problem, however, that can be addressed if we can encourage people to talk about mental health and be aware of the warning signs.  The Mental Wealth Games does just that by using sport and games to raise the issue in a fun and relevant way.

“We’ve had fantastic feedback from the schools, youth clubs and sports clubs where the programme has been trialled - winning the Dragons’ Den event will help us reach even more people.”

Phelim Sharvin, Associate Director of UCIT, added:

“The way in which voluntary and community groups and charities is funded has changed rapidly over the past decade.  With less grant funding from Government available and less capacity from high street banks, groups are increasingly relying on social finance.

“UCIT manages a variety of funds providing loans from £1,000 to £500,000 and in the past 15 years we’ve provided over £60m to 600 groups.

“TAMHI is a great example of the invaluable work carried out by social enterprises and they were worthy winners of the Dragons’ Den event with a very well thought out vision and strategy.”

TAMHI, which is based in Duncairn Gardens, was formed in 2011 by Joe Donnelly and Stephen McLaughlin following the loss of a friend and brother, Thomas McLaughlin, to suicide.  Using sport to tackle the problem of mental health the charity is now working with 40 groups and 2,000 young people annually in North and West Belfast.

UCIT manages a number of funding schemes, one of which provides smaller unsecured loans which are funded by Building Change Trust and Belfast Charitable Society. 

Building Change Trust was established in 2008 by the Big Lottery Fund with an endowment of £10m. Belfast Charitable Society is one of the city’s oldest charitable institutions.  This new fund provides loans of £1,000 - £25,000 which can be used for a wide range of purposes, including buildings and repairs, equipment purchase, energy efficiencies or funding shortfalls in larger grant assisted projects. 

The UCIT Group also manages the Northern Ireland Small Business Loan Fund on behalf of Invest Northern Ireland.  More details are available at www.ucitltd.com