Footie frenzy for London staff at Mates in Mind charity match

Although mental health is a pervasive challenge across all UK workplaces, its negative impacts within the construction industry have become undeniable.

In 2017, Randstad reporting showed that 34% of construction workers surveyed have experienced a mental health condition in the last 12 months, and that 73% felt that their employers do not recognise the early signs of mental health problems. The confronting human cost of mental ill-health could not be ignored with suicide rates amongst construction workers more than 3 times higher the national average.

The same year, Mates in Mind – a mental health charity with a specific focus on construction industry workers – was launched. The charity’s work has since been rooted in improving mental health across the construction industry and related sectors.

On Thursday 12th May Tri-build Solutions (a recruitment agency working within the construction industry) hosted held the annual fundraising football tournament on behalf of Mates in Mind at the Power League venue in Shoreditch, east London.

Vistry Partnerships has a long history of working with and raising awareness of the Mates in Mind charity, and therefore immediately signed up to this years’ event, entering four teams from across the London contracting and development staff!

Operations Director, Matt Norris, responsible for organising and entering the Partnerships London teams, commented: “We were delighted to have been able to form a part of this fantastic event."

This is the third time that Vistry Partnerships London have supported this annual football event for Mates in Mind, and as always the event proved to be a fantastic occasion for us to join up with a mix of businesses that operate across the UK construction industry to raise awareness and funds for this brilliant charity.”

“We’re extremely passionate in promoting and supporting mental health across the Vistry businesses and will continue with our collective efforts to generate more awareness and start the conversation on this subject.”

Thank you to everyone that was involved in this years game, the response to the invite was overwhelming from across our London staff and we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy work days to join us at this fantastic event.”

“As for the results, well let’s just say that despite our ‘stand-out’ and very ‘bright’ Vistry branded kits, we didn’t come out on top. The event started off with a very close game and a valiant effort by VP London’s Team 1, but with such an able goal keeper on the opposing team, working hard to defend our efforts in scoring, this led to the first game unfortunately resulting in a 5-4 loss for VP London. The VP London team 1 managed to scrape through to the plate quarter finals, but that was to be the end of their tournament.

VP London’s Contracting Team 3 pushed forward on to the plate semi finals, for what set up a thrilling internal derby whereby they were playing against colleagues from our London Development team, but London Developments were the victorious and well-deserved winner of this round. So, the congratulations has to go to Dan Vasiliou and his team for getting to the plate final game which unfortunately, after a very close game with Borough Engineering, they just fell short of being crowned the winners. It’s the taking part that counts!”

“We recognise that our experience can benefit organisations in these sector’s and we’re delighted to be able to facilitate such change, however, we remain firmly committed to reach our objective of 75% of the construction industry by 2025.”

“Thank you to all those who recently participated in this years London charity football match. Your donations and support enables our charity to continue to help organisations across the UK to improve and prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of their workforces, providing them the skills, clarity and confidence to invest in the health of their people.”

The event raised just shy of £5k for the Mates in Mind charity and lent itself to staff as a fantastic day for all, and as we say to our children. Mates in Mind.