Podcast 25 – Kate & William visited Wolverhampton for Mental Health Awareness Week

Kind thoughts for Kate Middleton (the Duchess of Cambridge)

Kate & William paired up to visit three organizations located in Wolverhampton, in England's West Midlands, as part of UK Mental Health Awareness Week. The organizations that they visited, focus on motivating and inspiring young people to transform their lives.

Their day started off with a visit to a youth organization called The Way Youth Zone, part of the On Side Youth Zones which is a national charity with a mission to build a network of affordable, high quality Youth Zones, across the UK, giving youths somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to.

Whilst visiting with the kids, William and Kate tried their hands at archery and table tennis and joined in with some gardening activities. Prince William tried to impress the boys there with his soccer skills but was, he said, wearing the wrong shoes to do a good job of it!

The second stop of the day saw Kate and William at Base 25 an organization that has been operating since 1998, providing mental health support services for young people who have difficulties in accessing mainstream services. The organization designs service plans around each young person’s specific needs as opposed to a one size fits all approach.

Whilst visiting Base 25 Kate and William sat down for a private conversation with some of the youths and their families to hear more about the services that they were receiving.

At their last engagement of the day Kate and William got to meet both 2 and 4 legged friends. The couple touched based with kids who benefit from services from Huggle Pets in the Community.

This project was set up by two directors in Wolverhampton who own a pet store called Huggle Pets. The retail store has previously undertaken events for the community, such as taking animals into care homes, schools and hosting family fun days in store.

The directors appreciated that animals have a big impact on those in the community that were lonely, have special educational needs and/or struggle with poor mental health and wanted to do more, so they undertook a series of research activities and surveys. They looked into ways of how their animals could support people and how they could make a model that was sustainable for the community. Their research identified that Animal Assisted Therapy for those with poor mental health and special educational needs would be beneficial for the wider community.

During their visit at the Huggle Pets Sensory Activity Centre, Kate and William joined children aged between 7 and 9 from the Loxdale Primary School in a self-esteem activity to help boost the children’s confidence and resilience, in supporting their mental wellbeing.

Kate and William heard how animals including Millie the Therapy Rabbit, help the children to feel calmer and they heard how the sessions with the animal help the children to talk about their feelings. Kate and William interacted with the children as well having their turns petting Barbara the Bearded Dragon and Gus the Guinea Pig
Keep listening in for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. You can reach out to me by twitter Jeanette Songolo @kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle (@JeanetteSongolo) / Twitter or by email at [e-mail]