Primula profits support youth mental health contributing to over £2 million in donations in 2022

Primula cheese are owned by Kavli Trust, a charitable foundation, and every year we donate millions of pounds to good causes. We find and fund projects that positively impact people’s lives in our community. Read about all of the charities and causes Primula supported in 2022 relating to child and adolescent mental health below.

A national youth mental health crisis

One in four 17 to 19-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022.* 

Since 2021, this has increased from one in six. Research found that children with bad mental health are more likely to live in a household with money issues or access a food bank.

The charity Mind said the UK government "will be failing an entire generation unless it prioritises investment in young people's mental-health services". 

These insights are shocking and upsetting to hear. The impacts of a mental disorder can be detrimental to a young person’s education, social life and career prospects. Primula want to support organisations that prevent these impacts and improve the mental health of young people through funding.  

Child and adolescent mental health is a priority area identified by our owner, Kavli Trust. Thanks to buyers of Primula Cheese, our organisation has donated over £2 million to causes supporting youth mental health in 2022. From local youth theatres to children's charities, we have supported causes that go beyond supporting mental health but instead changing their young people's lives. 

Curious Monkey

Among the North East charities improving the mental health and lives of young people are Curious Monkeys. They are a theatre company that engages young people in care, refuge and seeking asylum. Their work shares stories of marginalised and underrepresented communities, raising awareness of the issues people face. A new agreement of £132,000 from Kavli Trust ensures the continuation and development of Curious Monkey's Troupe project. The project allows young people with experience in the care system to develop skills, creativity and self-esteem through theatre.  

The support from Kavli has helped the theatre company to secure funding from other trusts and foundations. This moves Curious Monkey from a project-to-project model to a more sustainable multi-year revenue funded organisation. 

Thanks to our support, the charity is now able to hire a mental health worker. As a result, they can strengthen children and young people’s mental health and help them deal with emotions and challenges they face.  

We are so proud to support this amazing cause, read more about Curious Monkeys here for more information and show your support. 

Mortal Fools

Mortal Fools is a creative learning theatre charity based in Northumberland. The charity aims to support young people's self-belief and well-being through drama. Kavli's donation of £170,000 from 2022-2024 will further develop Mortal Fool's programme with Future Ready and Melva.

The Future Ready programme is Mortal Fools' method of co-creation for producing high-quality plays, movies, and other artistic activities. The goal is to help young people with complex lives, additional educational needs, neurodiversity and disabilities develop their leadership qualities, confidence, communication skills, and social and emotional skills in order to prepare them for adult life.

The Melva programme is a curriculum for students aged 7 to 11 in schools. In addition to lesson plans, resources, a teacher toolbox, and a large-scale theatre play, it includes a movie and a "choose your own adventure" game.

The programme was created in collaboration with educators, parents, mental health specialists and young people. Its goal is to help kids (ages 7 to 11) and the people in their lives have open conversations about and gain a better understanding of mental health, emotional growth, resilience, and well-being.

The programme follows the adventures of the colourful character of Melva Mapletree, “a sweet-eating, eye-rolling, aspiring-mountain-climbing, nearly 11-year-old”, as a way to teach children the language and skills to have ‘open, honest and regular’ conversations about mental health.

Find out more about Mortal Fools and their projects here.

Sunderland Carers

For our surprise donations during Christmas 2022, we selected Sunderland Carers as one of the charities to receive a donation. Sunderland Carers support people who care for others, whether it be a friend or a family member. This includes young carers such as children or teenagers.

They offer well-being support to carers, including healthy eating, physical, emotional and financial well-being and alcohol and substance misuse. They also offer a range of training for carers in partnership with Promas Online. Many of these courses have a focus on carer well-being, including courses on self-care, how to create a healthy balance and stress management.  

Our donation of £15,000 will make a huge difference to unpaid carers and enhance the support they receive from the charity. To find out more and show your support, see their website here.

Children North East

38% of North East children live in poverty, according to government data. Children experiencing poverty are more likely to experience low attainment, bullying and go hungry during the school day.

Kavli Trust funded a £170,000 project to battle the impact of child poverty in our region.  

The project will be delivered over the next year by local charity Children North East, which has delivered the service since 2014. 

Children North East will work in collaboration with sixty schools across the North East, to introduce Poverty Proofing, the School Day programme. The programme will work with pupils, families and staff to identify ways that children are missing out at school due to money and come up with solutions. 

We’re pleased to announce the project is expected to directly benefit 8,400 pupils in the first year and many more whose families are facing financial difficulty. Students attending the school in future years will also benefit which is fantastic, and we look forward to seeing the positive impacts this latest partnership creates. 

Health Research

Kavli Trust and the Norwegian Dam Foundation continue their collaboration through the Kavli Trust Programme on Health Research, which is specially designed to avoid wasted research. The programme will allocate up to a total of £190 million for research into child and adolescent mental health in 2017-2025.

The University of Manchester

Our organisation has awarded £800,000 to researchers at The University of Manchester. The funding is for a study project that will examine the effects of the school-based life skills programme, "Passport – skills for life".  

Passport – Skills for life is a school-based mental health program developed to increase 9–11-year-old children’s coping skills. 

The study will examine whether Passport – skills for life successfully promotes children’s ability to manage their emotions to reduce distress, loneliness, and bullying during the important transition between childhood to adolescence. 

For more information on this research, see the original article here.  

Anna Freud Centre

A research team at The Anna Freud Centre in London was awarded £750,000 by Kavli Trust, to carry out a new study evaluating a mentalisation-based treatment for children referred to mental health services in the UK.

In collaboration with University College London (UCL), Mental Health NHS Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, the study will evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT). The research mainly aims to find out whether mental health is improving for children aged 6-12 referred to mental health services.

MBT focuses on supporting the capacity to ‘mentalise’, in other words, making sense of their own behaviour and that of others.

This capacity to mentalise has been shown to play a key role in promoting emotion regulation and supporting emotional development in children.

To continue reading about this research, see the original article.

It wouldn't have been possible to donate the money we have to these amazing causes if it wasn't for our Primula cheese fans. Thank you for your ongoing love and support of our unique squeezy cheese!

Read more about other causes we have supported on Primula’s news page and Kavli’s research and news.  

*Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63784751