Spalding Hockey Club’s Talk Stick initiative has been recognised at the England Hockey Awards.
The initiative was started due to a sudden loss of a friend and teammate in the summer of 2024.
Sam Howitt, Mike Morris and David Dorey created Talk Stick to offer an environment where all current and former players, supporters, partners, parents, umpires and associates to come together to speak within the club to show no one is alone.
The club is incredibly proud to announce they won the Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award at the England Hockey Awards in Leicester.
Talk Stick continues working to create open conversations, challenge barriers, and make hockey a more inclusive space for everyone and ensure no one ever feels alone, help is available, and it’s okay to not be okay.
So much more is to come from Talk Stick, new partnerships with OddBalls and Eleven Hockey and starting conversations to save lives!
After a successful first year, Talk Stick’s plan for breaking the silence and raising the awareness of men’s mental health with the hockey families is to extend the project beyond Lincolnshire, arrange more charity hockey matches and using money raised to fund the delivery of mental health first aid sessions to partnering clubs.
Each club in Lincolnshire will have two trained Mental Health First Aiders.
Social media is one of Talk Stick’s biggest platforms and Instagram in particular continues to thrive with several international hockey players following the page.
