Passion4Fusion Community Story

Passion4Fusion, a current Henry Duncan Grants holder under the 2021 Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing theme, share more about their work in this community story written by Anna Fischer from Passion4Fusion.

In addition, having culturally appropriate services and someone to speak to who understands your cultural background and the community you are from has an immense effect. Being truly heard and feeling understood can make all the difference on a bad day. The work that we do is essential to our community, and essential to tackling the barriers that our community faces. However, the work we do cannot be successful without the help of our community!

Our sports activities cut across the city and in West Lothian where we have an intergenerational sports program. On average we serve around 85 children every week within Edinburgh alone. Through these activities we have been able to harness new friendship, and to build skills. Our Saturday football allows our boys to have a safe space in which they can play football and equally have a conversation with their peers and coaches from similar cultural backgrounds which allows for greater understanding! In west Lothian our dads and lads’ football & basketball allow for kids to see their fathers in a playful light and outside of the family, helping them foster more meaningful relationships and helping them bond.

Our Youth Social Action Project addresses the mental health issues. We have created workshops, and weekly meet ups to discuss topics that might be taboo, and to provide our young people with information regarding mental health, and an outlet where they speak freely and ask questions. By incorporating creative arts into the project, it allows our young people to explore difficult topics beyond themselves and allows them to put themselves into someone else’s shoes.

If you’d like to find out more – visit www.passion4fusion.com or contact the Passion4Fusion team at info@passion4fusion.com.