To mark Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month and the relaunch of Man Talk at Fight for Peace, we spoke to our Personal Development Manager, Leo to find out more about the sessions, and why it’s so important to create an environment for young men to express themselves in a ‘brave space’.

“When we first started Man Talk a few years ago, I had been talking with Michael (Fight for Peace Boxing Coach and Youth Worker) a lot about men’s mental health and how it affects us, and how we navigate society. We have a women-only personal development group called Lutadoras that meet every week, and we wanted to open a similar space to young men. 

Initially, when we started it Michael and I used to plan out sessions and decide on topics in a more traditional personal development style, and then over time we shifted more towards taking an approach more focused on coaching conversations.

Now we focus more on creating and giving space for young men to talk about what they want to talk about in terms of what it means to be a man, what the issues they’re facing are, and what they want to discuss and get more clarity and support on. It was all about them rather than what topics we as facilitators would want to bring into the space. 

There’s a lot of stuff around mental health and emotional intelligence, and we ask a lot of questions to prompt growth and awareness, which is really important in the coaching process. Men are able to share things affecting them, particularly mentally, and we’ve had a range of young people disclose things within the sessions, and to know that young people can express themselves in the sessions is beautiful.

Having a space with no judgement is really important, and building more awareness around how young men can progress forward and overcome any particular issues. Being able to be part of a community as well is an important thing, to feel like they belong somewhere. 

One of the things that surprised me the most is how much people opened up and how safe they felt. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t have, but I would assume it’d take four of five sessions for someone to open up.

The other thing is that it was a space that a lot of young men expressed they didn’t have access to which doesn’t surprise me, but it also surprises me at the same time. You’d think they may have access to it somewhere else but they didn’t, which shows that those places don’t really exist a lot.

I’ve learned that Man Talk is a luxurious space, and sometimes we don’t necessarily need a safe space but we actually need a brave space, and maybe that’s actually why people open up much quicker. We want people to feel brave enough to open up rather than waiting to feel safe.

I’ve noticed that people become more accustomed to the way we do things, they become more self aware, more supportive towards one another within the sessions themselves. 

As we start to pick up momentum with the reintroduction of Man Talk, I’m looking forward to working with Jason who recently joined our youth worker team. He’s been sitting in on the sessions to see how I facilitate, and he’ll soon be taking over, which is a part of our evolution.

Looking forward, I’d love to see more activities for young men outside of Fight for Peace, like residential activities for example, which has been expressed by the group in the past. I think that could have an even bigger impact.”

Man Talk sessions take place every Wednesday from 5.30pm-7pm, and provide a space for young men at Fight for Peace to come together to discuss issues that affect them all, to gain new perspectives from one another, and a deeper personal understanding of what being a man is in our society. 

These personal development sessions are a key part of the Fight for Peace Five Pillar methodology combining Boxing and Martial Arts, Support Services, Education, Employability and Youth Leadership to help young people reach their full potential.