Right Here: Aims and Approaches

Right Here is a £6 million programme which is running from 2009 to 2014, and is jointly managed by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation. It aims to develop effective new approaches to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people in the UK aged 16 to 25. Right Here focuses on intervening early to help young people at risk of developing mental health problems and on tackling the stigma associated with mental health problems that often prevents young people seeking help.

Right Here operates across four different projects in: Brighton and Hove, Fermanagh, Newham and Sheffield. Each project is led by a youth charity, working with other voluntary and statutory organisations. Young people’s participation is fundamental to how all of the projects operate, as is partnership working. Young people work with youth workers and mental health professionals to design, commission and deliver activities, while Right Here’s local delivery organisations work with public sector partners to increase the influence and impact of their work. The projects are intended to bring lasting benefits to the young people they work with, the lead  organisations and their partners, and to local youth mental health provision.
Right Here is also a partner in the Innovation Labs initiative which is developing a range of new digital tools to support young people’s mental health.

Right Here is being independently evaluated by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR). The final evaluation  report from IVAR will be published in the autumn 2014. Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation will use learning from these evaluations to influence practice more widely and make the case for policy changes, where appropriate.