This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is about empowering young people to use their voices, share what matters to them, and encourage those around them to hear their voices.

Our partners have compiled a programme of events and activities for children, young people and their families to get involved with.

What’s happening in Liverpool?

Schools, community groups, and organisations working with children and young people across Merseyside will participate in our ninth annual NOW Festival.

Organised and directed by Merseyside Youth Association’s (MYA) RAISE mental health promotion team, in partnership with the Liverpool Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership and School Improvement Liverpool, the festival will take place over three nights at the Liverpool Lighthouse in Anfield.

This year, we are revisiting the theme of ACEs – Adverse Childhood Experiences; there have been so many developments in the field since our last ACEs-themed NOW Festival five years ago.

Find out more and buy tickets here

Working in collaboration with Papyrus, the RAISE Team will be hosting a live Instagram session exploring safety planning the week before Children’s Mental Health Week.

Members of the RAISE Team will also be guests on a pre-recorded podcast, also discussing safety plans.
Follow us on Instagram for more information about dates and times.

LGBT+ Mental Health Sessions delivered by Student Nurses
Mental Health Nurse students will be delivering two short sessions on Children’s Mental Health Week on the 7th and 8th of February as part of YPAS’s GYRO and The Action Youth groups.

Sessions are open to LGBT+ young people with different groups for different age ranges.

LGBT+ Group Creative Writing Sessions
On the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th of February GYRO and The Action Youth will be having creative writing sessions looking at Children’s Mental Health from an LGBTQ+ youth perspective.

All sessions are open to LGBT+ young people with different groups for different age ranges.

YPAS Collaborative Art Project for LGBT+ History Month and Children’s Mental Health
Throughout February, YPAS’s LGBT+ groups will be working on a collaborative Art project, linking Children’s Mental Health Week with the theme of LGBT+ History Month.

Exploring LGBT+ contribution to medicine and creatively exploring what young people would like to change about society to make LGBT+ voices heard more and contribute to the depathologization of LGBT+ identities.

YPAS South Smarty’s Children’s Mental Health Week Session YPAS South Smarty’s will be having a session on Children’s Mental Health Week on 6^th February. In the session, they will explore what mental health is. Why is it important to look after mental health? And will also be making wellbeing booklets and affirmation cards.

Smarty’s is an open-access group for primary school-aged children.

YPAS North Smarty’s Children’s Mental Health Week Session

For Children’s Mental Health Week:

• Mindfulness and relaxation techniques
• Feeling Proud worksheet – My Voice Matters
• Letter of gratitude
• We will be looking at Article 12 UNCRC
• Mindfulness Colouring

YPAS Practitioners will be joining live streams (see below) in Whitefield and Childwall C of E Primary schools for Children’s Mental Health Week
Children from Whitefield Primary School will be delivering their stream on Tuesday 6th, February, from 9:30 am to 11 am, and will be focusing on being yourself and how you can help others to be themselves too. Children from Childwall C of E Primary School will be delivering their stream on Thursday, 8th February, from 2 pm to 2:30 pm, and will be discussing self-care.

Find out more here

Liverpool  Learning Partnership and Alder Hey Mental Health Support Teams will be delivering their popular Daily Xpress Livestream Events to schools.

• Tuesday 6th Feb 9:30 – 10:00 – KS1 ‘You are amazing’
• Tuesday 6th Feb 10:30 – 11:00 – KS2 ‘You are amazing’
• Wednesday 7th Feb 14:00 – 14:30 – years 5&6 ‘Speak up’
• Thursday 8th Feb 14:00 – 14:30 KS1 & 2 ‘Wellbeing & Me’

Find out more and book here

Kooth have a whole host of resources to access across Children’s Mental Health week.

We have webinars running across the year; in February, we will be running sessions for young people around the theme ‘My Voice Matters’. If you are interested in signing up to a webinar please do so here.

You can access our digital promotional materials via this link –  and access to all of our pre-recorded sessions is via this link –