Help Us Build a Lifeline for Bristol’s Young People: The Cotham Post 16 Wellbeing Hub
We are writing to you today as a member of the Bristol community, not just as educators, but as a committed team who see, every day, the quiet and often invisible battles many young people face in our city.
Cotham Post 16, part of the North Bristol Post 16 Centre, serves 450 students aged 16-19 at any given time, welcoming learners from across Bristol’s diverse communities. Our students make us perpetually proud with their ambition, creativity, hard work and social action. Many have such incredible resilience, but also face significant personal and social challenges from low mental health and anxiety, to poverty and risks associated with gang affiliation and child criminal exploitation.
We are so proud that, year on year, our student voice tells us that our young people feel safe and seen at Cotham Post 16, with a clear sense of how to access support around mental health when they need it. That said, there is so much more work to do to help young people recognise when they need it.
In recent years, we have felt the often heart wrenching and, at times, tragic impact of young people who have moved into their lives beyond Post 16 and found the buckling impact of modern adult life to be more than they could bear. This has profoundly affected our community and strengthened our resolve to do more and to do better, drawing on the resources and support of this incredible city.
That’s why we are creating a dedicated Wellbeing Hub at Cotham Post 16: a safe, welcoming space to help students build lifelong tools for mental health, resilience, and emotional wellbeing.
This isn’t just about a quiet room. It’s about hope, belonging, and early intervention.
Why this matters:
- Bristol has the highest rate of hospital admissions for self-harm among young people in the South West (Public Health England, 2022)
- Teenage boys in particular are statistically less likely to seek help, and more likely to suffer in silence; sometimes with devastating outcomes.
- The Avon & Somerset Police have identified a rise in child criminal exploitation and gang involvement among vulnerable 14-19 year olds in Bristol, disproportionately affecting those with fewer support systems.
The Wellbeing Hub will provide:
- A peaceful, trauma-informed space designed for restoration and mental recovery.
- Access to mentoring, therapeutic support, and wellbeing-focused workshops.
- Creative and reflective sessions to help students form healthy habits for life.
We need to raise £40,000
This will allow us to fully refurbish and equip the space (a former toilet block and current empty shell) to the highest possible standard, giving every student a chance to feel safe, seen, and supported. We have worked with contractors to provide a cost-efficient quote for the installation of floors, walls windows, doors and a rooms partition. In addition, full electrical and IT installation will need to be completed. Finally, the furnishing and kitting out of the space with the resource to fulfil the ambitions of the project.
In a city as strong, creative, and community-driven as Bristol, we believe we can make this happen together.
Organizer
Cotham School
Organizer