Axis Funds ‘Barney & Echo’ Mindfulness Project Benefitting 5000+ Children

Axis recently donated £1,000 to the Barney and Echo Mindfulness project as part of our annual community fund with our client, Estuary.

In collaboration with the Police Community Clubs of Great Britain, our donation helped a group of thirteen primary schools study the “Barney & Echo” Mindfulness Project, which will benefit more than 5,000 children. The project encouraged Year 5 & 6 students to discuss openness, confidence and how they felt in stressful situations and provided strategies and ideas to help them cope in a fun and informative setting.

The project helps children learn that mental health is just as important as physical health, and asks them to think about how they feel, how to make good choices and encourages them to look to the future with a positive attitude.

Mindfulness education has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, reactivity, and bad behaviour which may lead to fewer instances of anti-social behaviour, crime or substance abuse in later life.

One ten-year-old studying on the project said, “I will use the calming techniques when I get angry or upset”, whilst another ten-year-old participant agreed when commenting that, “breathing exercises can help when you’re angry, upset or just having a bad day!”

The professionals were thrilled, and one KS2/DSL Lead summed up perfectly when commenting that, “I hope there will be more projects like this in the future, as mental health is more and more apparent as a need to be addressed in children.”

Ian Jackson, Project Manager, Police Community Clubs of Great Britain commented, “We were excited that Axis and Estuary were involved with this project, which we feel all children in the present climate will benefit from. Estuary Housing are passionate about promoting emotional health in children and were the ideal partners to deliver the programme”.