BreatheUnion provides emotional intelligence (EQ), psycho-social skills and personal development to young aspirational leaders and changemakers. The start-up is founded by Louise Lyons-Appiah who completed a degree in Political Science with History at the University of Birmingham in 2022.
Louise's story:
Its creation has stemmed from the knowledge that we are in a mental health crisis with many young people like myself not understanding themselves and each other causing a breakdown of society. It has developed from the original iteration ‘Breatheuni’ which has been a collection of student groups who have supported each other through raising awareness on mental health, personal development and equality diversity and inclusion.
This has led to a wide range of opportunities for us such as partnerships with Beyond, Ollie Foundation and discussions with well known organisations like Universites UK, Clifford Chance, Student Roost and Target jobs. Strengths to the business, and achievements that we would like to carry forward include: Volunteering placements, Personal Development and Collaboration.
Volunteering: BreatheUnion has run a schools workshop in partnership with University of Birmingham School and a volunteer placement scheme with ABL Health.
Personal Development: We coach and deliver the Masteri Facilitation Programme to give facilitators a peer-to-peer support network, a method for conducting personal development through experiential learning and develop coach like qualities to help aide career and leadership progression.
Collaboration: We have a philosophy of collaboration; we have impacted more students then we could've dreamed of, helping over 200 students to-date across universities and secondary schools.
Having researched some of the current cohorts of students in the incubator, it seems to have really helped their business thrive. For me I am always more productive when I am in a working environment where I feel challenged and focused, surrounded by others with the same goal driven mindset. I believe the incubator could really help us to expand our network.
We hope to make personal development a common household practice in the UK and globally by 2031. To develop a systematic and authentic way for people to stay focused and manage their mindset using a cross between experiential learning and digital assets (Fully functional Masteri Academy) by 2026. We hope also to create partnerships with Office for Students and AMOSSHE and to be a leading training and consultancy provider for students and businesses who want to support the mental growth of students.