1 in 6 children aged five to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2020.

1 in 3 mental health problems in adulthood are directly connected to an adverse childhood experience (ACE).

1 in 5 children in our Tadley and surrounding schools are living with some sort of trauma at home.

It’s these sorts of statistics that cause our team to vision a community where children and young people have discovered a hope that leads to transformative love for themselves and those around them. A community that has compassion at it’s core and where justice flows like a river. This is our unfinished story:

Sam Dunn (founder) grew up in Tadley and has always had a heart to seek justice for the most vulnerable in our community which can often be, the poor in our community which is very often children. Having spent time supporting social justice initiative both here in the UK and internationally it’s fed into his heart to see more hope, justice and compassion in peoples lives.

Sam spent eight years working for a multi-million pound charity supporting children and young people living in poverty. He gained great experience of the charity sector and continues to be inspired by those around him who impacted by the charity’s work. In late 2021, Sam took a leap of faith, left charity and started working for his local church, Community Church Tadley. Sam is employed as the children and youth community pastor (a new role for the Church) and has been tasked (among other things) to support the children, youth and schools in Tadley. Sam supports five schools and can interact with up to a thousand students each week but focuses his work on one-to-one early intervention work. This focus gives children the tools to be able to support themselves and have the knowledge and awareness of their emotional and mental wellbeing, giving them a better chance at secondary school and beyond. Further to the early intervention work, Sam is also supporting many young people at a secondary school with their mental and emotional wellbeing through individual mentoring as well as group sessions.

Sam says, “it’s an injustice that children aren’t given the right tools to be able to develop healthy mental and emotional wellbeing. Schools are too stretched to be able to do this, and that’s where SAMS comes in.” For many students Sam has noticed a lack of hope in themselves, in their community and for their future.

In 2024 Sam took on his biggest physical challenge to date - IRONSAM. He cycled 100 miles on static bike in his local Sainsbury’s and the next day ran a marathon, doing loops that lead him through the Sainsbury’s foyer. The local community fully backed him through this challenge and many children and young people turned up to support and join in with him! After the huge success of the challenge, it gave the work that Sam has been doing a platform and acted as an umbrella to showcase the different projects and way he is impacting the community which has lead us to where we are today!

We’re so excited to see how opportunities are coming together and the visions being built and delivered. Sam continues to grow his network of volunteers, with the majority serving on a weekly basis, playing their part by impacting their community and the lives of children and youth within it.

So that’s Chapter 1 of our story. Chapter 2 is launching SAMS, thanks for being here for it.