Mission
HUMEN is leading a global movement to improve and maintain men’s mental health through The HUMEN Space.
74% of all UK and US suicides are male.
The HUMEN Space: the Gym For Your Mind are anonymous and non-clinical spaces across the globe for men to talk, listen and connect on a regular basis. We are striving to change the narrative until a prevention approach over a crisis response is the norm, not the exception.
HUMEN is changing the face of what it means to be a man. Providing an accessible solution to prevent men from suffering in silence and dying too young.
You are human. I am human. We are HUMEN.
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” — Abraham Maslow
My Story
We really need to stop just pulling people out of the river. It’s long overdue to go upstream and help to prevent people from falling in. Growing up anger was the answer to all my problems. When I was younger, the only tool I thought I had was a hammer. Quickly, without meaning or wanting to, I trashed everything in front of me.
I arrived at a lonely place, where I felt like I didn’t want to live but at the same time I didn’t want to die.
I tried everything to shake the emptiness. I found destructive ways to cope because I didn’t know any other way. Most days felt like an exercise in survival. I took the anger out on myself, and did a pretty good job of beating myself up but also did a great job of pretending life was fine.
After resisting for so long when I eventually asked for help I was told I could only continue to receive it if I was suicidal. We shouldn’t be waiting for people to reach breaking point before something is done. In a weird way it gave me a determination to get better and create what I wished was available. That’s when the idea for HUMEN came.
Anonymous and non-clinical spaces for guys to talk on a regular basis. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin. I realised I was not the problem, being a man is not the problem. Only these limiting scripts, prescribing what it means to be a man, which damage men and belittle women, are a problem.
From as young as age six, boys trade innate empathy and compassion for phoney toughness. As the years pass, our social vocabulary, our emotional toolkit, is often reduced to but one choice. The hammer.
HUMEN is here to change that. I want to provide as many men as possible with a better way, an accessible way to improve and maintain their mental health. Prevention is better than cure because there is no cure once someone has ended their life. HUMEN is what I wish had existed years ago, it’s what I hope will help men today and keep helping more and more men in years to come.
Impact
We’ve provided 3,601 sessions in our HUMEN Spaces
IMPACT
We’ve had a reach of 471 million in print and digital media in the past 12 months
IMPACT
We’ve created the first-of-it’s-kind university mental health ranking
IMPACT
Our Rise Against Suicide Walk saw TV coverage on all of BBC, ITV and Sky
IMPACT
