Exploring Trauma Through Creative Writing

Black Angel shares what went into writing their first book and what you can gain from reading it. This combination of stories and poems are a short collection I use to explore difficult subjects, such as sexual abuse and depression. I seek not only to bring awareness of these areas of trauma that many people …

How Fitness Saved Me from Myself – Part 2

Daniel Munroop continues to open up about his struggle with poor mental health and how fitness played a part in saving him. This is Life I dropped out of university in my second year. I had no interest in the subject and no interest in life. Relationships became broken and I fell into a dark …

How Fitness Saved Me from Myself – Part 1

Daniel Munroop opens up about his struggle with poor mental health and how fitness played a part in saving him. In order to be “successful’ you must have a university degree. This is was a big part of growing up for me. Although those exact words may not have been said, they were certainly engraved …

8 Steps I Took to Improving My Mental Health

During Mental Health Awareness Week, Shaniqua shares some of the steps she took to look after and improve her mental health. As it’s Mental Health Awareness Week, we had a great series of conversation on Instagram Live on Wednesday, with me talking to Elliott, Mhairi, Daniel, Demi and Elisha. Their shared experiences and tips were …

How can we drive down youth violence? – Part 1

Shaniqua looks back on a deep conversation at The Kickback, focusing on youth violence. On June 18th, we sat down to talk about youth violence, a topic that continues to be an important at YPI, resulting in really big conversation. So big, in fact, that I've had to split the conversation into two parts. I …

How can we look after our mental health?

Shaniqua looks back on this year's mental health focused conversation at The Kickback. With last week being Mental Health Awareness Week, mental health was the topic of conversation on May 21st.  This year, we were looking at depression, so we were joined by Richard from Mind in Croydon, who did an amazing job of getting …

How I’m Battling with Myself Mentally

With it being Mental Health Awareness Week, our founder, Shaniqua, shares her experience of her mental health struggles and how they have continued to affect her. If you've followed the YPI blog and my journey over the years, you will know about my battle with self-harm and my mental battles with myself, which led to me …

Coming to Terms with Loving Yourself

In the lead up to The Kickback when we'll talking about Self-Love, Mhairi shares her experience and thoughts on the topic. “In fact, stare at yourself in a mirror daily. Each time compliment on something. Maybe today you like your hair or you don’t enjoy the shape of your lips, but that’s ok because tomorrow …