The three-year grant, awarded as part of Bukhman Philanthropies’ commitment to drive meaningful change and build a brighter, collective future, will support our mission of transforming the mental health of the nation. It will help us deliver accessible, scalable, support to young people through a digital ecosystem of resources, tools and one-to-one support, co-designed and developed with them.
To date, we have supported hundreds of thousands of young people through our services Shout and The Mix. In 2024 alone, volunteers from our Shout text support service took more than 350,000 conversations with people aged 25 and under, across a range of issues including suicide, depression, anxiety, loneliness, body image, relationship problems and more. In many instances (47%), Shout Volunteers are the first person a texter has opened up to about their mental health, and more than half (56%) of texters aged 25 and under told us they feel more comfortable texting than talking. Our volunteers are supporting people beyond the service, too, with 100% telling us that their experience at Shout has given them the skills to support someone with their mental health outside of their role.
Since merging with The Mix last year, we’ve co-developed innovative products and resources to support even more young people and children at scale, strengthening our early intervention offer, helping people build resilience and improve their wellbeing.
Through a revamped dynamic online hub, The Mix offers under-25s an expanded range of support services with a focus on content, community, counselling and crisis, and we’re delighted to have recently launched our self-paced learning topics ‘LifeSkills’, giving young people a flexible, free and private way to help them manage their thoughts and feelings before they are overwhelmed. The first topic focuses on anxiety, and we look forward to releasing more over the next few months.
At a time when mental health support is needed more than ever, Bukhman Philanthropies’ grant will enable us to scale and deliver these crucial support resources over the next few years.
Victoria Hornby, CEO of Mental Health Innovations said: ‘We are so grateful to Bukhman Philanthropies for this incredibly generous grant. Mental Health Innovations is at the forefront of providing scalable mental health support to children, young people and adults across the UK and this grant will significantly enhance our digital services, training, tools and resources, enabling us to reach tens of thousands more young people who are in vital need of early intervention and crisis support.’
Daria Bukhman, Co-Founder and Chair of Bukhman Philanthropies said: "At Bukhman Philanthropies, we believe that every young person deserves accessible and compassionate mental health support. We’re proud to partner with Mental Health Innovations to help scale their vital work and ensure more children and young people across the UK can find help when they need it most."
