Mind And EFL Launch World Mental Health Day Campaign

The EFL and Mind have extended their partnership, marking it with the launch of a new World Mental Health Day 2019 campaign, ‘Goals Worth Talking About’.

The awareness campaign will feature participating clubs, whose fans have voted for their side’s most iconic EFL moment. Each moment will get its own piece of street art in the respective cities.

Mind and the EFL are in year two of their charity partnership, which aims to improve football’s approach to mental health and wellbeing, and the league says that Goals Worth Talking About seeks to highlight how important talking is when it comes to mental health support, highlighting how football is, for many, the perfect conversation starter. The murals in each city are designed to be a local, visual reminder of that, based in city centre locations.

A new piece of artwork will be created in a different city each day between 3rd October and World Mental Health Day, which falls on 10th October. After the event, photography of the murals will be displayed at special gallery exhibition in London. 

Sunderland, Leeds, Preston, Cardiff, West Bromwich and Leyton in East London will all feature a piece of artwork based on their club’s iconic moment, while Bristol will get two – one for City and another for Rovers.

Debbie Jevans, EFL Executive Chair, said: “The EFL is proud to be associated with Mind as our charity partner and we are pleased to be able to work together to highlight the challenges around mental health on World Mental Health Day. 

“The power of football and the club badge provides a platform like no other and through the Goals Worth Talking About campaign and the EFL’s wider partnership with Mind, we aim to continue to encourage conversations and improve the approach to mental health in both football and in the wider society.”

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind said, “We know that football and emotion go hand in hand. That’s why we’re delighted to be marking World Mental Health Day this year with Goals Worth Talking About, as part of our charity partnership with the EFL. 

“Football has the power to bring about real change. We hope that by harnessing the passion and emotion fans have about their clubs’ most significant goal through these fantastic pieces of street art, we can encourage more people to start up conversations about their emotions and ultimately their mental health too. 

“Together, Mind and the EFL hope that Goals Worth Talking About can be the inspiration to people to make their first step to getting support.”