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Nesbitt involved with Hummingbird Project

THE HUMMINGBIRD Project is hoping to increase its community presence across the Causeway Coast and Glens after agreeing a unique, new partnership with Coleraine Football Club…

Based in Portstewart, the award-winning social enterprise’s goal is to enable people on the North Coast and more widely throughout NI to determine and support their own mental health and emotional needs.

Looking after your mental health, it says, is just as important as physical health.

The project was started just over five years ago by Leigh Carey, a mental health professional, now CEO, in response to her own devastating experience of personal trauma which resulted in mental ill health.

Under her leadership, The Hummingbird Project is run by a team of six mental health practitioners who use their own ‘lived experience’ of living with mental ill health and trauma to give clients the tools and support to improve their own mental health and resilience.

This, Hummingbird says, sets it apart from more traditional mental health support services with staff using their personal experience to pass on guidance to others. The approach creates greater empathy, engagement and trust with clients and frees up much needed and under pressure acute mental health services.

Jimmy McAleese, Service Development Lead at Hummingbird said: “Lived experience makes all the difference when it comes to supporting people with mental ill health. It’s about us being willing to share our own stories to support people and give them the skills and expertise to not only stay well but, when faced with life’s difficulties, to be able to engage earlier and either manage their own mental well-being or seek additional support and help.”

Hummingbird’s wider work sits in a progressive environment of a new vision for mental health services rooted in the community and moves beyond traditional medical models to embrace early intervention strategies and recovery.

Hummingbird provides key services such as one-to-one recovery/resilience mentoring, emotional resilience skills training, local community projects, thought leadership and workplace wellbeing solutions to assist people improve their mental health, life circumstances and reduce stigma.

Jimmy added: “I am really excited about the many opportunities this new community partnership will bring to the club, the fanbase, the local community and for everyone at Hummingbird. I’ve grown up on Windsor Avenue overlooking The Showgrounds and supported the club as a young boy. It makes this partnership all the more special to me. My aim is to bring the same pride, passion and purpose to everything we do through our partnership that I bring when cheering on the Bannsiders and that means making a lot of noise.”

JAMES NESBITT RECORDS VOICEOVER FOR THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT

Dedicated Coleraine Football Club fan, local son and international acting sensation Jimmy Nesbitt who recently made a surprise guest star appearance in the BBC’s smash hit Line of Duty is to add his voice in support of The Hummingbird Project by agreeing to do a voice over for its first animated short film.

The graphic sums up (in a happy way) what Hummingbird is all about when the animated character encountering obstacles on his journey, teams up with a hummingbird and through partnership working solve problems and build bridges together.

James said: “I am delighted to be supporting the highly impactful work carried out by The Hummingbird Project here on the North Coast and all-over Northern Ireland by providing the voiceover for its first animated short.

“I hope the film will encourage everyone who sees it to understand there is much you can do to look after your own emotional well-being. Involvement with Hummingbird is a unique and innovative opportunity to make good change happen in your life, in your organisation and more widely in mental health services. “