5 March 2021

The Mayor’s Awards in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are held every year to recognise the people who have gone above and beyond to serve their community and make a life changing difference to residents of the borough.

For the first time this year three new award categories were introduced: Individual Contribution, Local Community Organisation and Coronavirus Response.

Among the winners was founder of Minds United FC Tarik Kaidi who won the Individual Contribution award. Minds United FC also won at the Mayor’s Awards this year in the Local Community Organisation category.

Tarik Kaidi said, “I set up this project because there was no other football projects in the community for adults with mental health issues that were free, this session that we provide gives people the opportunity to express themselves and be creative through the power of sport.”

Minds United FC uses sport to connect the community, reduce isolation and improve the wellbeing of adults who have mental health difficulties. Each week they play a 6-a-side game where adults from any background come together, forget about the difficulties they are currently going through and enjoy a game of football. 

In 2019 Minds United FC and staff from CNWL came together to give patients in the mental health ward at St Charles Hospital the chance to play football. Staff and patients were able to build positive connections with each other, which aided the patiets recovery.

Find out more about Minds United FC.

You can view all the winners from the Mayor’s Awards here.