Barca-Leeds is proud to mark the three-year anniversary in June 2026 of being a partner in the Being You Leeds service, led by Touchstone, which promotes positive wellbeing across Leeds. Although wellbeing is universal, it has prompted us to reflect on our history of delivering men’s health improvement work in Leeds.

Making a difference to men’s lives through community services is inspiring and motivates us to get out of bed every day! This has been a 12-year journey leading to working in a positive and mature partnership with Touchstone, Hamara, Health for All, Holbeck Together, LS14 Trust, Women’s Health Matters, Inspire North and Humans Being. The combined impacts are similar to the Men’s Health Unlocked partnership which has collectively reached over 2,800 men in the last 2 years.

Two significant moments for us were firstly, when Public Health commissioned Barca-Leeds in 2013 to consult with men in Armley about the issues of mental health and suicide. This was such a taboo subject and felt very challenging, but we quickly realised that people were keen to talk about it and how deeply it affected them.

Secondly, in 2016 Alan White published his ground breaking report: ‘The State of Men’s Health in Leeds’ – the first detailed study at a citywide level in the UK to focus on this issue. We supported discussions about implementation and the findings have informed and influenced our Men’s work since then. This included a moment during the pandemic when a major funder gave us five days-notice to create a credible idea for an underspent funding pot – and Men’s Health Unlocked was born.

We have learned a lot along the way from the people we have engaged with. Key takeaways are: men will respond to services that meet their needs and / or are co-designed by them. And, male role models promoting healthy behaviours can inspire young men and create positive change.

You can read about and view a detailed infographic of our journey here.

Joe Kent

Barca-Leeds

Barca-Leeds

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