Leeds Rhinos Women player Tara Moxon was the latest Rugby League star to support the delivery of Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Offload men’s mental health programme for key partners Mears Group this week.
The England international joined Rhinos PDRL captain Simon Brown and Development Officer Sam Horner to lead a brilliant session focusing on Mindfulness and Resilience, which was delivered to a group of Mears staff at their head office in Leeds.
Following the session, Tara took to Twitter and said: “A lovely offload session by Rugby League Cares and Leeds Rhinos Foundation delivered today on Resilience and Mindfulness with two legends.
“I always leave with such a big smile on my face after these sessions- even though I’m the one delivering them! Great to be involved.”
Offload for Mears Group is now into the fifth week of this bespoke six-week programme and as with previous courses delivered within organisations and local businesses across the city, there has been some great feedback from the men attending the sessions.
Mears Group have been a key partner of Leeds Rhinos Foundation since 2013, supporting the charity’s Rugby League Development Plan, which has helped increase participation in the game, increased fan engagement and improved standards through coach education and player development programmes.
As part of the Mears partnership, Leeds Rhinos Foundation offered the critically acclaimed Offload men’s mental health programme to support their employees. A group of 10 staff signed up for the scheme and the impact over the last five weeks has been significant, with some very open and honest engagement from all involved.
Nicola Berry, Customer Success Manager for Mears Group, commented: “The Offload programme that Sam and the team have delivered have made a massive impact to those attending in such a short space of time.
“Here at Mears, we understand the important of promoting positive mental health and we believe that rolling this out to wider team will have a positive impact. We are grateful to those who have come along as guest speakers such as Tara and Simon to share real life experiences, which enables the attendees to really relate to their messages.”
Offload is a men’s mental fitness and wellbeing project run by Rugby League Cares, delivered by club foundations into communities and businesses who are looking to provide the benefits of Offload to their workforce.
Over the course of the six Offload ‘fixtures,’ which cover topics such as ‘What is Mental Health?’, stress and coping, building a positive mindset and emotions, the men build their own mental fitness and learn key coping strategies to deal with difficult situations. Talks have now begun to repeat the sessions with other staff and launch another Offload programme for Mears Group, starting in September.
Programme Coordinator for Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Sam Horner said: “The Offload workshops are perfect for the workplace and work great within the construction industry.
“It is still a very much still male dominated industry with a traditional ethos of just ‘manning up’, so thanks to programmes like Offload we can help to promote a more positive working environment which will have great benefits as workplaces with high levels of mental wellbeing are proven to be more productive. We thank Mears Group for their continued support of Leeds Rhinos Foundation and look forward to working in partnership with them on more community projects in the future.”
For more information about the Offload men’s mental fitness programme with Rugby League Cares, please visit https://www.rugbyleaguecares.org/offload/what-is-offload/