King’s students in Circle U. Challenge present solutions to local mental health challenge
Students from across Europe pitch their solutions to the London Borough of Lambeth and South London and Maudsley Hospital (SLaM) for the chance to win a trip to Belgrade to showcase their idea at the Circle U. Challenge National Conference.
Five teams, comprised of King’s students and students from Aarhus University, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and UCLouvain, pitched their innovative solutions to address the critical issue of mental health for Lambeth residents within the age range of 0-25.
Launched in September 2022, the Circle U. Challenge brings together international and interdisciplinary student teams from nine partner universities in the Circle U alliance to develop solutions to authentic challenges faced by civic partners in our regions, cities and communities.
5-minute pitches were followed by questions from our judging panel, featuring: Sabrina Phillips (Director of the Lambeth Living Well Alliance and a mental health nurse with over 17 years’ experience), David Walsh (Expert in Residence at King’s Entrepreneurship Institute) and Holly Knower (Head of Ventures at King’s Entrepreneurship Institute).
The winning team who will attend the Showcase event in Belgrade are Abbie Chay (Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health, IoPPN), Akira Furuta (Education MA, SSPP) and Kazi Unysah Nabi (Biomedical Science, FoLSM) with their idea Wandering Emotions.
Wandering Emotions is a weekly event where families can participate in an organised, interactive nature walk led by mental health volunteers offering conversations and tools around mindfulness, meditation and MBT.
This Circle U. Challenge meant a lot to us as mental health is such an important topic. We are grateful for this opportunity which allowed us to develop our project for early intervention and prevention of mental illness, as we believe it can have a real positive impact in the community of Lambeth. We are excited to develop it further and see where it takes us. A huge thank you to our mentors for their ongoing support to strengthen our proposal. We are so proud to be going to Belgrade to represent Kings!”
– Wandering Emotions
It was a pleasure hearing the solutions put forward by aspiring entrepreneurs as an aid to improve mental health for residents in Lambeth. All solutions had been highly thought through and were well-articulated, with demonstratable impact on 0–25-year-olds within the borough. Congratulations to Wandering Emotions for their no-code solution, designed to create an inclusive family activity with Lambeth’s green space at the heart of it!”
– Holly Knower, Head of Ventures, Entrepreneurship Institute.
The King’s College London challenge designed in collaboration with London Borough of Lambeth and SLaM, was one of six challenges proposed by the nine participating European universities. Any student could apply to any of the challenges, not just the challenge organised by their own university.
Over the last six months, participating teams working on the King’s challenge have attended interactive bootcamps and received mentoring and pitch practice from the Entrepreneurship Institute.
Team Wandering Emotions will now head to Belgrade to present their idea at the Circle U. Challenge Showcase on 16th May 2023.
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