Falkirk teenagers are Making Falkirk Colourful to help those struggling with their mental health

The five 17-year-olds are creating a colouring book as a mental health resource as part of the work for their Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award.

Connor Sweeney and Euan McGuire, from St Mungo’s High; Ewan Taylor and Jessica Stirling from Braes High and Kirsty Emslie from Falkirk High are behind the Making Falkirk Colourful project.

As part of the Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award, which supports young people develop their confidence and build on life skills, participants work in a small group leading a real life project in their own community.

Explaining the reason for choosing to create a colouring book, the high school pupils said: “We heavily value support and help for those that suffer with their mental health and so we felt a duty to design and distribute a colouring book filled with pictures, inspirational quotes and advice on important aspects of mental health, alongside note pages to write down thoughts and feelings while colouring. Colouring books are an excellent resource for mental support that can benefit people from all backgrounds and would have a lasting impact on the community as it is a physical asset.”

As well as the physical books being printed, members of the public can access the pages from the book through the group’s Instagram and website, acting as a permanent resource.

The creators continued: “We will be releasing the book for free and making it easy to access through physical copies and a version uploaded on our website. We personally cannot wait to release the final product and let people enjoy the book.”

The teenagers have already hosted fundraising events for the project which were well supported: “We raised money by selling cakes as part of a school bake sale and hosted a charity fencing match between a student and a teacher. People also engaged through our campaign to collect images for the book from community submissions.”

Once printed, the books will be distributed to a number of local venues for those who require its contents. The group plan to have them in schools, cafes and libraries.

The Making Falkirk Colourful initiative is just one part of the awards programme, run by the Outward Bound Trust, that the pupils are taking part in. They have already taken part in a residential as part of it.

The S6 pupils heard about the award through their schools and decided to get involved.

They said: “We decided it was an excellent opportunity to meet new people and work on an excellent project which we viewed as an exclusive experience. The idea of a project commitment was amazing and exciting. Also, it was a chance to provide a beneficial resource to the local community.”

To find out more about the Making Falkirk Colourful project visit makefalkirkcolourful.wixsite.com/makefalkirkcolourful or follow makingfalkirkcolourful on Instagram.

To find out more about the Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award visit www.outwardbound.org.uk/the-mark-scott-leadership-for-life-award