Gift Melva to a school of your choice
Businesses and individuals can support MELVA and give the gift of mental health education through storytelling to primary school children for the next academic year.
What is Melva?
MELVA is an award-winning creative, web-based programme, created by creative learning charity Mortal Fools, designed to improve children and young people’s knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing.
It is delivered by teachers in primary school settings and with older young people in specialist provision.
Individual schools can purchase MELVA for £750-£1000 per academic year
but in the contemporary landscape of ever-changing school budgets, sector cuts, increasing children’s needs and worsening mental health, the cost of the programme can be prohibitive for many settings.
By supporting MELVA, businesses can remove this financial barrier, whilst also investing into charity Mortal Fools – the children’s charity behind MELVA. Most importantly, they will be placing effective mental health resources directly into the hands of the children who need it most.
For businesses passionate about ESG and evidencing corporate social responsibility, MELVA is a tangible, measurable and high impact way to demonstrate an investment in children and local communities. Businesses or individuals can choose which settings they gift MELVA to, or our team can work with you to identify appropriate settings.
MELVA
in action
Schools can access the MELVA programme through annual licences, which businesses and individuals can gift as part of their ESG commitments.
The MELVA programme helps children at a developmentally critical age by teaching effective wellbeing strategies and fostering emotional resilience.
During the 2024/25 academic year, MELVA supported approximately 4,000 young people, with 1,000 of them gaining access thanks to the generosity of our business supporters, Muckle LLP, Ryder Architecture, Square One Law & Sorella Sorella. For this year, we now joined by Womble Bond Dickinson.
Read below to discover what they had to say about their involvement and why they are committed to supporting the MELVA intervention:
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Muckle LLP
Muckle LLP is a commercial law firm with offices in Newcastle and Cumbria. Operating out of Newcastle since 1920, the firm specialises in business services for clients across a range of sectors.:
We are delighted to have been able to support Mortal Fools through its MELVA programme for a second year. The work they do in encouraging young people to increase their knowledge and understanding of mental health and connect with a language enabling them to talk about this openly is extremely important and is something we wholeheartedly support through our grant funding here at Muckle.
– Nicola Leyden, Director of HR at Muckle LLP
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Ryder Architecture
Ryder is an architecture practice based in Newcastle upon Tyne. The firm works across a wide range of sectors and specialises in architecture, interior design, landscape design and placemaking:
As a business we’re committed to helping young people to progress and thrive by supporting education initiatives in the communities in which we work. MELVA has never been more relevant. It tackles issues of anxiety, confidence and mental health in an imaginative and engaging way, and we are delighted to be supporting the programme for a second year.
– Richard Wise, Partner from Ryder Architecture.
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Square One Law
Square One Law is a commercial law firm with offices in Newcastle, Teesside and Leeds. The firm specialises in supporting businesses to face any challenges ahead of them and achieve their goals and ambitions.
Now more than ever, supporting young people’s mental health is absolutely crucial, and Mortal Fools is leading the way with their innovative Melva programme. We’re happy to play a small part in helping to bring Melva to local schools – by using storytelling to teach practical wellbeing techniques, they make mental health accessible and engaging for children.
– Maria Brooks, Director of Operations at Square One Law
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Sorella Sorella
Sorella Sorella is an Italian restaurant in Sunniside, Washington. Offering authentic Italian cuisine in a relaxed setting with unique vintage decor, Sorella Sorella was named Restaurant Of The Year: North East at The Food Awards England 2023.
We are delighted to support Mortal Fools as our chosen charity for 2025. Mortal Fools, through their Melva programme, support children and young people with their emotional and mental health wellbeing. As parents ourselves, we recognise the importance of giving children the information they need to be able to manage and understand their emotions, and to be able to support a North East based charity doing this is fantastic.
– Roya Talai, Owner at Sorella Sorella
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Womble Bond Dickinson Foundation
Womble Bond Dickinson Foundation was established by Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP in April 2017 as an independent charity.
Through the foundation, its trustees support the structure and administration of the firm’s charitable giving; empowering charities to find new ways of making a strong, positive impact.Supporting organisations like Mortal Fools is central to our commitment to empowering charities that create meaningful change. Through the Womble Bond Dickinson Foundation’s grant giving scheme, we’re proud to help deliver programmes like MELVA, which equip children with vital tools to understand and manage their mental health. By backing initiatives that build resilience and confidence in young people, we aim to make a positive impact where it matters most. Our contribution helps Mortal Fools continue its innovative work, ensuring thousands of children across the North East have access to creative, life-changing mental health education.
– Sally Dallow, Chair of the Womble Bond Dickinson Foundation
This year’s supporters
Supporting MELVAthe impact
Further support from businesses will help us grow our user base even further, getting this high impact resource into the settings that need it most. We believe businesses must go further and faster, to build a better world for the future workforce and to unlock crucial and urgent support for children and young people in our communities and networks.
MELVA is an immediate investment into the development of foundational life skills, that can enable positive, fruitful lives of children and in the longer term, resilient teenagers and adults that can cope with the realities of the contemporary world
“Financial support from compassionate and civic-minded businesses has enabled us to remove significant barriers for schools to access MELVA, placing effective mental health resources directly into the hands of the children who need it most. The more businesses like this we work with, the more children we can reach. We would love more businesses to invest in Melva, so we can reach even more young people!”
– Kiz Crosbie, Mortal Fools CEO & Artistic Director.
Next Steps
If you’re interested in supporting MELVA, email our Melva Team today to explore sponsorship opportunities.
We are always open to connecting with businesses and individuals who are interested in supporting MELVA. We induct new schools each Autumn and are actively seeking out sponsors for Academic years 25/26 & 26/27 and beyond.
Click below to download our brochure, which covers what investing in MELVA looks like and what the gifted settings gets access to.
Funded and supported by:
