What is the My Strengths Training For Life project?

Our project is My Strengths Training For Life or MST4Life for short. MST4Life is a strengths-based sports and exercise psychology program that uses techniques used by the world's best athletes to help young people experiencing homelessness. The program helps young people to develop essential skills to use, develop and recognise their strengths and also to improve their well-being.

Why is the project important?

Our project is important because young people experiencing homelessness face multiple disadvantages and health and social inequalities. The program helps to reduce these health and social inequalities by giving the young people opportunities they need to develop skills which are essential for navigating services and work, as well as improving their health and well-being.

Why do you work on this? 

I was working in a variety of alternative education settings, such as special educational needs schools as well as pupil referral units. Whilst I was working in these settings, I began to develop some strong bonds with the young people there and really started to understand the challenges that they faced. Simultaneously, I was completing my degree and found that I also really liked research. As I got further through my degree, I found a research position within the My Strengths Training for Life project and the rest is history. It was important to me because these young people need someone to advocate for them, and it's important that we understand the challenges they face in order to be able to do that.

What does home mean for the people involved in your project? 

For the young people that we work with, home is somewhere that's safe, stable and consistent. This is important because prior to establishing this sense of home, lots of the young people experienced social stereotypes, discrimination and instability, as well as past traumatic events.