The mission of the Connections in Mind Foundation is to support children, young people and adults to develop executive function skills with a focus on supporting young people who face financial disadvantage, special educational needs and, or mental health challenges.
Executive Functions are the brain skills we need to get things done - we need good executive function skills to organise ourselves, prioritise tasks, to stay on track with our goals and to juggle the demands of life.
Research shows that good executive function skills directly impact how well you are able to do at school, in our jobs, our wellbeing and relationships.
They are key skills for doing life well.
For some young people developing these skills is harder than for others. Poverty and trauma can have a really bad effect on how these skills develop.
If a young person is neurodiverse - for example if they have autism, ADHD or dyslexia this can mean that executive function skills are very challenging.
This is a big problem because adults who support young people who struggle with these skills - parents, teachers, teaching assistants, are often not sure how to best help them. This leads to some young people not doing as well as they could at school, reaching their academic and personal goals, struggling in relationships and often developing mental health challenges such as anxiety or depression.
Young people growing up in the distracting world of the 21st century with addictive technology have to work even harder to master these skills.
At the most extreme end of the scale some young people who struggle with these skills can end up breaking the law/offending. It is estimated that almost half of all young people in young offender institutions struggle with executive function skills.
Through our foundation we deliver executive function coaching projects, training for professionals and schools and parent projects to support young people to develop the strong executive function skills they need to thrive.