Rovers continue to show support for mental health awareness on world mental health day and every day.
World Mental Health Day takes place on Thursday October 10 and is an opportunity to bring mental health to the forefront of conversation. Rovers have worked hard over the past 12 months to support mental health charities locally and nationally as well as raising awareness of mental health and encouraging conversation.
The year began as Rovers launched a competition to design Rovers’ 2019/20 third kit. This was rolled out across schools within the borough and accompanied by lessons and education around mental health. The students were then asked to design a shirt based on what they’d been taught in the lessons.
More than 300 children were involved in the competition and the club received hundreds of fantastic entries. The players were the judges and selected the winning entry which was designed by ten year old Nate Nisar.
Nate’s bold design was covered in different coloured triangles to represent different mental health conditions and had a chaotic feel to represent how chronic mental health conditions can make you feel lost, frustrated, and confused.
Rovers played in the striking kit in their home draw against Burton Albion. The kits were later auctioned off on eBay raising £4,000 for mental health charity CALM.
Club Doncaster continue to host social cafes at the Keepmoat Stadium in association with Doncaster Mind. These regular sessions give people chance to get out of their usual routine and meet up with like-minded people. Matty Blair and fellow Rovers players often drop in to say hello at these sessions.
This world mental health day, the club has continued to push and promote awareness of good mental health with a very special DDTV episode staring Alfie May, Donny Dog, Doncaster RLFC's Parky the Lion, and Eric the Viking which talks about how young people can deal with stress. Click here to watch.
The Club Doncaster Foundation have also been developing and growing their Fit Rovers programme which now covers Fit Rovers Ladies and Fit Rovers Juniors. This eight week programme dedicates at least one week to promoting good mental health practices.
Internally, Club Doncaster has provided mental health awareness training to all staff including players in both the senior and youth teams and key staff members also received mental health first aid training.
Rovers take the topic of mental health seriously and will continue to work hard to promote good mental health and encourage conversation across the borough in future.
