Member Article

Yorkshire Entrepreneurs offer solution to SATs stress

Three local businesswomen believe they have the solution to SATs stress and the children’s mental health crisis in the UK.

Frederika Roberts, Elizabeth Wright and Jayne Snell are calling on residents and businesses of Yorkshire to help them win financial, PR and mentoring support and pitch their business to Richard Branson as part of the Virgin Media Business VOOM 2016 competition to reach more children with their programme for primary schools.

VOOM 2016 relies on public votes to shortlist the UK and Ireland’s most exciting entrepreneurs, and Frederika (44), from Doncaster, Elizabeth (36), from Leeds and Jayne (46), from York, believe their company ‘RWS | Resilience Wellbeing Success’ has the idea to impress the public.

“Children’s mental health is in a state of crisis. 1 in 10 children aged 5-16 - that’s equivalent to 3 in every classroom - in England has a mental health problem and over half of mental ill health starts before the age of 14. I believe the answer lies in prevention. We need Yorkshire residents and businesses to vote for our pitch in order to help us help more children.”

The RWS programme was founded by Laughter Yoga leader and happiness & resilience expert Frederika, triple Paralympic Medallist Elizabeth and double Blood Cancer Survivor Jayne. It runs in primary schools for up to 11 weeks and early results from pilot schools show that pupils who have been through the programme are happier, better at focusing on tasks and at overcoming life’s challenges, and have learnt how to set and achieve goals.

In a survey, the RWS programme was rated as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ by 100% of teachers, 97% of pupils and 93% of parents. 100% of parents thought more schools should run the RWS programme, 100% of teachers said they would recommend it to other schools and 91% of pupils said they would recommend it to their friends.

’‘Virgin Media Business VOOM 2016 is all about seeking out, supporting and celebrating the UK’s and Ireland’s most exciting businesses. It’s the biggest and most valuable pitch competition out there - we’re hoping everyone will find a way to get involved!’ says Sir Richard Branson.

Peter Kelly, Managing Director of Virgin Media Business adds, “We’re in the business of accelerating great ideas and boosting local businesses. Whether that’s by helping the UK’s entrepreneurs access superfast broadband, or by establishing the country’s most exciting pitch competition, we’re proud to be helping small businesses succeed.”

As well as showing your support for local business, your votes could result in Virgin Media Business crowning Yorkshire as Britain’s most entrepreneurial region … so get voting now!

Voting for VOOM 2016 is now open! You can vote (and pledge your support to the campaign) by searching for ’VOOM 2016’ and ’Resilience Wellbeing Success’ on Google.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by RWS | Resilience Wellbeing Success .