Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow Mind Youth Advisory Board Member crowned Grand Champion of the Jack Petchey's Speak Out Challenge 2024.

The Cambridge Theatre, London saw Toby Yates, a Fourth Form student at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School and HFEH Mind Youth Advisory Board Member, crowned Grand Champion with his speech 'Kindness is Key' on 8 July.

The HFEH Mind member said: "I feel absolutely amazing. It still feels so surreal. Part of me thinks it isn't actually happening. Big thanks to everyone who came, it was really great to see all the people that came to support me!"

Sponsored by the Jack Petchey Foundation and run by the Speakers Trust, the competition works with schools and colleges across London and Essex to promote communication skills through expert led workshops and coaching.

Each one of these students receives an all-day public speaking workshop from the UK's leading public speaking and communication charity, Speakers Trust.

Toby's 'Kindness is key' speech earned him Jack Petchey's Grand Champion title at the Speak Out Challenge 2024 (credit: HFEH Mind).

During the training, students are given the skills and the confidence to develop and deliver a competition speech on a topic that is important to them.

The aim of the training and competition is to amplify young voices. 

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During the programme, a speech contest is held at the end of the one-day course and each school selects a speaker to go through to a Quarter Final (37 students become Regional Champions from each borough and area of London and Essex).

From those 37, 15 are then selected to go to the Grand Final.

The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School English department worked alongside the organisation to host a day of sessions where every student in fourth form were given the opportunity to 'speak out' to an audience about a topic they were passionate about.

Toby Yates has been a core member of HFEH Mind Youth Advisory Board since 2022 and was directly involved with the creation of the Circle, HFEH Mind's Children and Young People's Youth Hub Space and Café (credit: HFEH Mind).

Four were chosen to present their speeches in front of the year group and two were selected to represent the Vaughan at the regional finals, one of those being Toby Yates.

Reacting to Toby's success, HFEH Mind Youth Services Team said: "Huge congratulations from us here @hfehmind! We are immensely proud of Toby who has been a core member of our Youth Advisory Board since 2022 and is one of our trained young advisors who supports us with recruitment, events, and panels.

"As part of our Co-production team, Toby was directly involved with the creation of the Circle, our Children and Young people's Youth Hub Space and Café in Ealing and supported the youth-led sports workshops at Masbro that took place in spring 2024. We are so proud of you!"

The charity say children and young people in west London can play a 'pivotal role' in shaping the future of mental health services by getting involved in HFEH Mind's Youth Advisory Board, by simply getting in touch with its Youth Co-production Team ([email protected]).

To find out more about HFEH Mind, click here. To find out more about Jack Petchey's Speak Out Challenge, click here

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