Davanti partners with Wigan Warriors and Happy Smiles
5th January 2022
We have partnered with Wigan Warriors and Happy Smiles Training to deliver sessions in schools encouraging children to discuss feelings and emotions through the power of storybooks.
Most recently, we visited St Benedicts Catholic Primary School in Wigan alongside Warriors first team players and the Happy Smiles team to deliver one of their sessions. Funded by Davanti, the children read books that addressed things such as mental health issues and terminal illnesses which prompted them to discuss their feelings and emotions.
Alex Winstanley, author of the books, and Inclusion Champion for Happy Smiles training said: “The book we looked at this time was about depression and it looks at the life of someone who is suffering from mental health challenges. Everyone has gone through lots of challenges in the last 18 months, in lots of different ways, this is a way of getting people to talk about their feelings and emotions.”
Liam Hillier, partnerships manager at Davanti Tyres added: “It’s fantastic for us to be able to put money and effort towards these types of foundations. Especially sitting in the classroom with the kids, seeing all the amazing things they are learning and it’s brilliant for us to be able to give children these experiences.”
Wigan Warriors Community Foundations School’s education manager, Guy Wood said: “Happy Smiles are our programme leads, they’re the ones who deliver sessions across the local primary schools and the aim is to encourage children to talk about feelings, emotions, aspirations and how they want to develop in the future.”
