About Bear Force
Developing positive mental health and resilience in young children so that they are better equipped to deal with emotional challenges as they get older.
Bear Force encourages children to express their feelings from a young age helping to build the foundations for positive mental health as they get older.
Emotional problems in older children and young adults, can often stem from childhood experiences with reactions presenting themselves many years later. Our work looks to support children as young as 3 years and provides them with tools to help them right through their formative years.
According to the young person’s mental health charity YoungMinds, one in six children aged five to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021, a huge increase from one in nine in 2017. That’s five children in every classroom. We know that mental health problems in children can have a big impact in adulthood, in so many ways, on mental health, relationships, work, life expectancy, and family.
“We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Desmond Tutu
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“When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements that seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens, how confusions that seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing streams when one is heard. I have deeply appreciated the times that I have experienced this sensitive, empathic, concentrated listening.”
Carl R. Rogers
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Foundations for Life: Strategies to support children’s everyday mental he
The Story behind the Bear Force charity
For many years, Richard Bland, an aviation photographer, would use a toy bear in his aviation photography to raise money for children’s charities.
Over the years, calendars, cards, and posters with photos of the toy bear in planes, raised considerable sums of money for these good causes.
The bear, later named AB Bear, after his son, Andrew Bland, soon became a well-known character within the flight industry, accompanying the RAF, commercial airlines, and the armed forces, on many of their journeys. The bear wearing his made-to-measure RAF flying suit is now believed to be the world’s most travelled teddy bear 2013, Richard’s son Andrew Bland took his own life. Richard and his wife, Susan, lives fell apart.
Richard and Susan sought support from a bereavement charity. In gratitude for the support the couple received from the charity, Richard wanted to donate the bear and its memorabilia to the charity. The charity convinced Richard to keep everything, and instead write a book about AB’s adventures Richard’s first book, “AB Gets His Wings” was written with the purpose of generating income from its sales to encourage school children to talk about their worries.
The book and AB gained support from many organisations, celebrities, and well-known individuals, including H.R.H. Prince William and the RAF. The book’s second edition, “Bear Force,” evolved to help caregivers and adults facilitate conversations with children about their feelings.
In early 2023, the charity Bear Force was established to support children’s mental health through play, storytelling, and training for adults caring for, or working with children. Its mission is to build positive and strong mental health foundations for children from an early age so that they are better equipped to deal with life and its emotional challenges as they get older. With half of all mental health conditions established by the age of just 14, there is overwhelming evidence for providing support for children at the earliest opportunity.