The Locker Room Project

Locker Room is a collaboration between Beyond Equality and the Kinetic Foundation. It is an initiative working with athletes and clubs to prepare young players to face social and mental pressures that come with playing a professional sport, whilst giving them the tools to have a more positive impact on their communities. This combines open facilitation with young people with staff training and optional mentoring to ensure sustainable change occurs at the individual and cultural level. We’ve already gone out and delivered the workshops at Premier League clubs: Manchester City, Southampton and Crystal Palace with a plan to rolling it out to the whole of the Premier League.Beyond Equality (Previously ‘Good Lad Initiative’) have been running projects in schools, universities and workplaces for the last 8 years that have been attended by over 35,000 people, with the aim of opening up important conversations about masculinity, mental health, consent, sex and how to maintain healthier relationships.A group of our students at partner school Harris Academy Tottenham have been taking part in the highly interactive workshops which use a combination of role play, thought provoking exercises and deep reflection activities to get them engaged. The programme delivered to them is the one developed through the Locker Room project and is based around 3 main elements - Character and Culture, Mental Wellbeing and Life Skills & Development.The ‘Character and Culture’ part focuses on giving everyone a chance to share their experiences and explore who they are as young men in a society full of pressures and expectations. This covers:- Exploring positive masculinity- Developing and nurturing personal identities- Building space for individuals to create a supportive group culture‘Mental wellbeing’ takes a holistic approach to player welfare, looking to replace negative rhetoric with a culture and values that support good mental wellbeing. This covers:- Destigmatising mental health and well-being as men and young footballers- Building resilience by connecting with others- Managing performance related stress‘Life Skills and Development’ gives a chance to see what role and impact our young people have on those around them. Particularly looking at attitudes that normalise sexism, sexual violence and discrimination and help them see their role in prevention. This covers:- Dissecting difficult or challenging social issues faced by young men- Partaking in positive conversations about personal roles and responsibilities- Exploring next steps for action Beyond Equality supports men in their journeys analysing their own attitudes and internalised ideas about ‘manliness’ and masculinity, a subject that can cause mental health issues and significantly affects the lives of many. The workshops undertaken by our young people encouraged everyone to get involved while being honest and open about what they think, based on their individual identities influenced by factors like race, class and sexual orientation. But, as importantly, question how these things are shaped by the world around them, through advertising, the media, their peers and family. It was made clear that there would be no judgement and it was a space offered for them to experiment with sensitive and complicated situations. Beyond Equality aims to promote positive masculinity and in doing so, enable men to deal with complex gender situations and help promote positive change within their social circles and broader communities.We have seen up close the issues that boys and men face. We recognise the stress and pressure they experience living under a system that can have such a narrow, negative idea of what it means ‘to be a man’ and we have heard them speak out and support each other to do better. Engaging men in conversations about gender equality can seem daunting - there are lots of potential crossed-wires, insensitivities and awkward language. These are not easy conversations, nor easy changes to make. But they are essential. The openness of questions allows the boys to think individually and form their own ideas. The quieter boys in the group were also able to ask their questions.We’d like to thank Beyond Equality for their time in delivering these important workshops and look forward to working with them again in the near future!