York Men’s Mental Health Charity, backed by I.C.B and York St John University, rolls out support in Scarborough.
Menfulness began almost 10 years ago as a local dad’s social and has grown exponentially since then into an award-winning men’s wellbeing movement whose aims include challenging the stigma around men’s mental health, encouraging men to speak to each other or a counsellor when they’re ready and providing opportunities for men to work on their physical and mental health in a safe, friendly environment. Now they’re taking their unique approach to Scarborough after securing funding from the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (The statutory organisation responsible for funding the NHS).
Menfulness has a raft of regular in person groups centred around activities as well as its main event, the Menfulness Knights Talk Group on the first Monday of every month facilitated by the York RLFC Knights at the Community Stadium. They support thousands of men per year via their events, podcasts and closed WhatsApp and Facebook groups and can even refer York men for affordable counselling via their partnership with local counselling service, Serendipity.
A York St John University research project in 2024, led by Dr Gary Shepherd and Holly Murphy funded by the Institute of Social Justice, found that Menfulness attracts men from at risk groups and is not only helping them improve their wellbeing and reduce levels of anger, depression and anxiety but it’s also reducing instances of suicidal urges.
In Spring 2025 the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) granted Menfulness a grant to trial their approach to men’s support in Scarborough launching in summer 2025.
Jack Woodhams, one of the Charity’s founding Trustees and now Chief Executive Officer said:
“The five trustees and 20 volunteers have been working hard for years to change the outdated narrative that men can’t or won’t speak up about their challenges. Too often such stigma prevents men from speaking in the first place or lets services off the hook for not providing enough support when men do ask for it. We’re proof that given the right conditions blokes can and will speak up and the results can be life changing for them, their families and their communities. We’ve lost too many friends and family to suicide where men have left it too late to get help, and we’ve seen how men can make transformational change when given the right support.”
We’re over the moon that with this funding from the ICB we have a unique opportunity to try and support men in Scarborough, a place that so many of our members, volunteers and trustees know and love. We know Scarborough has its own unique story and we’re keen to make sure this is a grassroots, Scarbrough led project, which is why we are over the moon to have employed a Scarborough local, Ben Redfern as our Project Manager. Ben has a wealth of experience in the field as well as a deep understanding of Scarborough’s needs and existing offering. We look forward to seeing what Menfulness looks like with Ben leading the way.
For more information on Menfulness and their research visit Menfulness.org/research. To book onto an event visit Meetup.com/scarboroughmenfulness
