During January, EquitaBLe partnered with Every Man Can CIC to record a podcast on the topic of Paternity Leave. Every Man Can are local to our Teesside Park retail asset working in the community to support men & their families, providing mental health and trauma training, therapeutic support and highlighting relevant mens health topics through their mental strength podcast. This insightful episode included guest speaker Micky Nicholas MBE, ED&I lead for Northumbrian Water. Micky is an ex-exec council member of the Fire Brigade Union who worked for decades to progress the D&I agenda, earning his MBE for services to Equality and Diversity. During the discussion, the men shared their experiences of paternity leave, honest views on statutory rights, thoughts on what men want and how business across varying industries are responding to a shift in generational parenting and the demands of family life. You can listen to the podcast here: Music in intro and break - Clean by PaynesBeats -- https://freesound.org/s/371680/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Kim is a qualified hypnotherapist dedicated to helping people break free from anxiety and burnout through a powerful blend of psychological therapy, hypnosis, and NLP. Guided by empathy, creativity, and spiritual intuition, her approach creates a safe and supportive path toward lasting peace and resilience. Having overcome her own struggles with anxiety and burnout, shes deeply committed to helping others find clarity, confidence and build mental stength. Weather working one-on-one, at retreats, or in workshops, Kimberley crafts personalised experiences that empower clients to reconnect with their strength and embrace meaningful change.

Ahead of tomorrow Sunday 8th December full podcast release, interviewing Kimberley Weir, we interview the co owner of this podcasts host business, The Artizan in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, Frances Hynes. With a second venue in Marton, Middlesbrough, he talks to us about the challenges to mental strength in running a business here, the daily challenges of employing and managing, the great opportunities and responsibilty in being an employer to young, developing adults and touches on his own experiences of mental strength. Thanks again to Frances for his time and offer to host us.

We were proud to host a podcast on behalf of Teesside Park and British Land, at a jobs fair for young people. The jobs fair was held at Teesside Park and it showcased what amazing young people Teesside has, and what businesses are doing for them. The podcast was emotive and we discussed the difficulties of employers and employees, when hiring young people in today's society. With fantastic interviews from guests which included managers of Nike, Hollywood bowl, and Teesside Park. Mental Strength naturally came into the conversation and it opened stories of personal professional challenges.

Gary, being Gary didnt give us a bio, so, we made one up for him. ha, I'm just a doyle who was worked in radio for 30yrs. An intriguing insight into a voice of a community, a man who's voice soothes and helps others on BBC Radio Tees A man that loves his music and realises the importance of what it brings, and a record collection to match. An open and honest conversation about everyday problems of men and the reality of how it effects them, and him.

Ahead of tomorrows fortnightly interview with Gary Phillipson, recorded at Cookfellas restaurant and winery in Guisborough, we talk to the owner, Helen Leonard about the fascinating personal story that led to the setting up of the restaurant.

- Nick Gates, son of renowned footballer Eric Gates, has built an impressive career in both the playing and business sides of football. A former player for the England U18 National Team, Nick later attended Harvard University in the USA, combining his passion for soccer with a world-class education. - He is the founder of PLAY SOCCER USA, a coaching company that has positively impacted over 2 million children, promoting youth soccer development across the country. In 2002/2003, Nick held a key role as a Business of Football Executive at Middlesbrough Football Club, gaining valuable experience in football management. - In addition to his business ventures, Nick is actively involved in two global football charities, including "Head Safe Football," dedicated to promoting safety and awareness in the sport. His diverse career reflects a deep commitment to the game at both grassroots and professional levels.

Dr Iain Caldwell is a chartered psychologist. With over 22 years’ experience of working in the “mental health sector”. Iain is a FIT (Feedback Informed Treatment) training and supervisor. He is also a CEO, a director of 'Making Sense of', which is focused on bringing clarity to the world of human distress and developing better approaches to helping people. He is also a Director of APBA (Association of Practice Based Approach), an innovative organisation focused on delivering practice-based evidence in how to improve effectiveness, gain better results and transform personally and professionally. This packed episode introduces ideas around how to better contextualise people's individual experiences and embodiment of their mental health experience. Examples include : We shouldn’t think good therapists or a good trainer. We the patient should think do they FIT with me? FIT means can I work with you? That’s the measure of importance and relevance. ABC of mental strengths which Iain created. As a framework to hold lots of ideas/tools. Attitude - a way of thinking or feeling... Behaviours - actions (inc social awareness)... Connections - relating... Professional gaslighting is something Iain refers to as being new in his vocabulary….it’s recently emerged. He imagines other people having a similar experience of emergence with this and is interested in exploring the area. When considering the Mental Health Medical model- he believes the main issue is it decontextualises a persons life when the opposite is needed. He also states that psychiatry isn’t a science, if it was it would be called neurology. Richie Andrew leads and is joined by Matt Homan and Matt Stirland. All video and social by Matt Stirland of the short form content social media company CREATE HYPE. Find him on Instagram, Facebook AND Linked In.

Steve Whittle is a pivotal figure in combating male suicide stigma. Founder of 'Tough To Talk' and creator of the MANUP book and journals, he transforms conversations around men's crises and mental health. Having overcome his own struggles, Steve brings personal insight and determination to his mission. With a background in the Royal Navy and expertise in marketing, Steve combines strength and strategy to drive societal change. His charity focuses on reducing male suicide and challenging the gender mental health gap, encouraging men to seek help confidently. John Gallifant is a father of two beautiful and energetic boys and a proud Yorkshire bloke! He has been lucky enough to have a varied career in the leisure, retail and hospitality sectors - all of which have enabled him to experience a wealth of culture, approaches and view points throughout his professional growth. He is passionate about ensuring that people are at the heart of everything he does and regardless of the business he works in, he remains f ocused on ensuring the team comes first. Through his time in sport, business and just being a bloke he has experienced stigma, and barriers, that have stood in the way of valuable and much needed support. He recognises how it can be hard to reach out, to ask for help, or even just talk about things that are uncomfortable and feels privileged to be part of the Tough to Talk team. They hope that through their passion, focus and actions they are able to instigate change for the better - They believe that together they can make it easier to talk and build a future where men are able to find help and remove barriers that currently stand in the way. Every Man Can CIC and our Mental Strength Podcast wish then luck and look forward to working closer with them in the future.

Ash Carter is a 26 yr old, Stockton born lad and early on in life faced challenges along with his twin brother. Both his parents were deaf, which meant him having grow up fast, interpreting for them by the age of 5. This led to him feeling embarrassed, shameful and not wanting to do normal things as people would make fun, attention he didnt want. His parents split when he was 9, before his mother met a man who manipulated her, a side effect being that he then spent much more time with his nanna. This became a messy custody procedure leading to him moving in with grandparents permanantly, but was then exposed to his grandad suffering with serious depression. Throughout his earlier years, he experienced a lot of violence in home life and social. Growing up in Stockton, was around drug pandemic , and experience was the area as a violent place, and ended up fighting all the time. Martial arts and faith have since become a big part of his life and he specialises in muay thai. His christian faith has become a large part of his life, and taking up new opportunities offered to him, he found himself in Dubai coaching football, before settling in his current role, coaching and working for Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation, with the dream to run his own charity. Now much closer to your mother and feeling proud to be her son, he says he wouldn't be wherebhe was now without these adverse experiences.

Nick Able from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK is a multi instrumentalist, composer, educator and performing musician of over two decades, praised for his musical talent as a teenager by local stars Sting and Mark Knopfler. Nick was a student and disciple of the great, late Pandit Ravi Shankar where he lived and toured internationally with the Shankar family for more than 10 years and performed at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, London, Carnegie Hall, NYC, Sydney Opera House, Australia, The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, The National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan, as well as headlining festivals WOMAD, Reading UK, The Sacred World Music Festival, Fes Morocco, and many private events including those for ROLEX, for various charities such as The Elephant Foundation and PETA to name a few. Nick became a member of the Anoushka Shankar Ensemble in 2006 touring globally on her ‘Rise’ tour, her album which was nominated for a grammy award and has accompanied Anoushka in concerts globally for 21 years, most recently at the Elbphilharomonie, Hamburg Germany, The Philharmonie de Paris and the Ravi Shankar Centenary Concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London with guests, Dhani Harrison, John McLaughlin and Nitin Sawhney. Nick composes music for TV, video games, multimedia, installations and films. He also works as an educator and runs the Andy James Guitar Academy alongside Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Andy James, and works as an Internet Entrepreneur having partnered with guitar legend Frank Gambale, Daniel Tompkins of TesseracT and helped many others as a consultant, most notably Alan Robson MBE on his site RobsonsWorld.com. After more than 10 years working in online education and the internet, Nick is reemerging into music after a dark period with a unique sound medicine and sound healing aspect to his work following years of frequency meditation and linking this back to his years learning from the great Pandit Ravi Shankar and the deep healing powers of music. Nick will release his first solo album in early 2025. Nick is developing a new website and can be contacted through there and on all major social media. - https://nickablemusic.com/ Hes also featured on some other great podcasts, details below: The Above Average Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0y8C8xE7vFMn2kAuuirPyU?si=a76f4b45aefd46b4 Kingdom of Rock Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ulWGzJi3OPlKiAEPj3X0b?si=826ec5e5eba34010

As the second part of our 3 podcast specials interviewing musicians and song writers, this shorter special feature interview, between Richie, Bobby Latheron and Anna Taylor from Autism Matters was recorded earlier this year for this special set of 3 podcasts. Bobby is a 29 year old Autistic young man, author, songwriter and campaigner, from the north east of England. Bobby has written and published his book called My World In My Words, about the hard journey he has had in life, coming to terms with bullying, sexuality and his neurodiversity. Bobby has experienced mental health issues (often overlooked like many health issues for those with Autism and learning differences) and uses creativity to support his recovery and healing, finding meaning and purpose in writing his book and writing songs. He is currently working with Karl Pemberton, of Journey south fame on this journey. He helps me with the music and putting it all together. He attended social groups at Autism Matters in Teesside where, people with Autism are supported, socialise and connect to establish a postive commmnity of support. 2 years ago sadly one of the members died, it was sudden and we where all shocked. I decided to write a song for him and dedicated it to Autism Matters. Here is the link to that song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhrb26qTgA Bobby has written over 10 songs and his latest one has had over 6000 views on facebook. This is very overwhelming for but brings great joy in its success.. The link for my new song is also right here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeNDOEW7INw If you would like to get to contact Bobby please search Bobby Latheron on facebook or contact him through his you tube channel.

Finn Forster...already set for massive things... Hailing from the industrial town of Middlesbrough in the North East of England, Finn Forster is a pioneer of songs that come from places of real truth, deliver anthemic melodies and shine light on the trials and tribulations of his youth told through captivating vocals. Fresh from a sold out UK tour in 2023 and a top 5 single in the UK iTunes pop chart, and backed by BBC Introducing as their ‘One To Watch’ for 2023. Following the release of his 5 track Debut in June 2024, ‘Grey Skies’ which includes single’s like ‘On My Mind’ which gained recognition from BBC Radio 6 Music and was added to BBC Radio 2’s ‘New To Two’ & C List. 2024 is shaping up to be a major through year for the North East Artist.

Joe Hilton is a local Teesside bloke who's a Self-help author, speaker and coach, specialising in mental wellbeing and personal growth. He is also a director in a company called Growth Planner Co which provides bespoke journals to companies, education institutions and health and wellbeing educators. The South Tees Wellbeing network (of which Every Man Cans Men's Health Network is a part) collaborated with Joe to produce a well-being and positive psychology journal which has been very well received. The episode was recorded at Richies 'man cave' in Guisborough, Redcar and Cleveland, after a last-minute cancellation by a local venue.

34 Liz Mcguiver - Barefoot Kitchen @ Ormesby Hall, Middlesbrough.

Recorded live at Kader Football Club in Middlesbrough. Craig McManus is currently the deputy head of Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation. His journey led him from professional football in Scotland to a life of homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction. This interview takes us through that journey and struggles to the moments of self realisation and recovery to where he is today. Through mental fortitude and reflections on where he had come from and ended up, he drew the strength to reconnect with what was a constant in his life....football. Taking him ultimately towards a place to wrap his recovery around, rehabilitation, and to where he finds himself today... ...And then Richie decided to compare his professional look to the current Liverpool FC manager...😂🙈😇

Two boro graduates of Recovery Connections 12 step recovery programme tell their different stories of overcoming addiction to inspire others to learn from their experiences. Recorded at the excellent Persian cottage restaurant in Middlesbrough. Adam Petson is currently a Recovery Capital Development lead for Recovery Connections in Middlesbrough (UK). His recovery journey from alcoholism began in June 2017 when he started a 24-week residential rehabilitation program at Recovery Connections in Middlesbrough. During this time, both Adam and Peter went through a physical, mental and psycho-social process that allowed them to create the foundation and building blocks of their recovery.  Following completion of a Psychology and Counselling degree and a masters in Trauma informed practice. Adam now pushing forward with creating the UKs first 'Recovery City' in Middlesbrough and oversees the collegiate recovery programme in Teesside University, something he describes as giving him serious purpose. Peter Da Silva found his way into addiction and a life of crime when his mother passed away when he was 11 years old. Multiple court appearances and an ever descending path into hard drug addition saw him sentenced to more than one stretch in prison as his life continued into chaos. In 2017, he found himself homeless yet within a year, he was admitted into a Rehab programme where he finally found the foundations of his now 6 year period of being clean. He has also completed a degree in psychology and counselling, and is proud to be helping others as a Harm Reduction Support Worker in Middlesbrough, living a full life. This candid, open and honest interview contains some difficult topics yet can provide hope and insight to anyone on a similar path or those affected by addiction. Recovery connections have some great information on their website. To find out more, visit https://www.recoveryconnections.org.uk

Sarah Beth is the founder of health and well-being company Habit which supports people to; Release trauma Reprogram their mindsets And rejuvenate their energy by creating healthy habits in as little as 20 minutes a day.     Sarah's work was born out of lived experience of childhood trauma, mental illness, and addiction that spanned across 3 decades.    In 2022 Sarah was awarded funding from innovator UK to carry out a research project to demonstrate that a preventive approach to workplace wellbeing can support better mental health and emotional resilience for employees.   The feedback was extremely positive. And Sarah is now looking to expand upon this research by helping individuals and organisations to develop healthier daily habits that support our basic needs.   If you'd like to find out more about Sarah's approach you can follow her on Instagram @habit_tribe and/or book a FREE Exploratory call to find out how she can help you to; Release trauma Reprogram your mind Rejuvenate your habits   https://stan.store/Habit/p/exploratory-call

Ahead of this sundays new fortnightly podcast, we interview the owner of the hosting venue this week, Roberto of Cafe Lilli. A wonderfully charismatic Teesside entrepreneur, he talks to us for a few minutes about his own wellbeing and his priority of his own staffs wellbeing too. He also tells us about his latest business, legume based pasta from 'The Pasta Man'. Find out more @ https://www.thepastamanshop.co.uk/ and https://www.lillicafe.co.uk/

Recorded at the brillaint Fellinis Restaurant in Middlesbrough, we interviewed Steph Turnbull. Steph is currently the technical director of the York City FC Foundation. She is also the manager of the York ladies' first team. A qualified and highly respected UEFA A-licensed coach, she has years of experience throughout the game. Steph shows her passion so clearly in this captivating and honest interview, talking about her desire to develop and inspire young girls and women to play the game of football, but also understanding the mentality needed to be within an elite programme. A teacher, a coach, and a passionate, proud Teesside woman who is determined to make change and help with the mental strength of these young players. Plenty for all men and women to be inspired by.