Wolves and Wolves Foundation will build on the first-year success of Together Against Suicide after securing funding from the Premier League to continue the programme for a further season.
The initiative uses the reach and trusted platform of football to raise awareness of mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention, while making confidential, practical support more accessible to supporters. Its renewal will allow Wolves and Wolves Foundation to deepen the work already established at Molineux and create stronger links with communities across Wolverhampton.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day tomorrow, here is an overview of how Together Against Suicide was launched, and has since developed.
Shaped by experience
The programme’s foundations were laid through a consultation group involving Will Clowes, Foundation director, and a select group of leaders from clubs with significant experience in the mental health space. The group brought together practical knowledge from existing programmes and explored how football could create safe, non-clinical opportunities for supporters to talk, seek help and connect with specialist services.
Those early conversations included Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and broadcaster Roman Kemp, whose commitment to suicide awareness was shaped by the death of his best friend Joe. Will’s involvement ensured that Wolves’ established experience informed the emerging model. The Foundation is well known for its long-running and successful Head 4 Health programme, while the club’s matchday mental health and suicide awareness video reached millions of people online. Together, that experience demonstrated both the need for continued action and football’s ability to engage audiences at scale.
Year One programme foundations
Wolves were one of 11 clubs to receive funding through the Premier League’s Together Against Suicide pilot, launched on World Suicide Prevention Day in September 2025. Working with Samaritans, Wolves and Wolves Foundation developed a matchday approach through which supporters experiencing suicidal thoughts could ask any steward to contact a member of the safeguarding team and access a confidential conversation and guidance towards appropriate support.
Ten dedicated wellbeing stewards received additional training to recognise signs of distress, hold supportive conversations and connect fans with safeguarding and specialist services where needed. Staff involved in the project were also trained by Samaritans to listen without judgement and signpost people towards professional help. Importantly, the service provided a quiet and accessible route not only for individuals who needed support themselves, but also for friends and family concerned about someone they knew.
The local identity of the work was strengthened through Ow Am Ya? — the familiar Black Country greeting adopted as the programme’s central expression. Warm, recognisable and rooted in Wolverhampton, the phrase offers a simple way to open a more honest conversation about how somebody is really feeling.
Across May and September 2026, Molineux hosted two suicide awareness sessions attended by over 100 fans. Co-delivered by club and Foundation staff alongside the Samaritans, the event received an overwhelmingly positive response and showed the appetite among supporters to play an active part in a culture of care, early intervention and open conversation.
Reflecting the Foundation’s Stronger Together strategic priority, staff from across Foundation, the club’s matchday operations and safeguarding teams worked together to coordinate the training and ensure appropriate support was available to supporters on matchdays.
Year Two growth
During the second year, the matchday wellbeing stewards will continue to provide visible, approachable support at Molineux. Renewed funding will also support a dedicated Wellbeing Officer role within Wolves Foundation, creating additional capacity to lead training for more supporters, strengthen local partnerships and ensure the programme connects effectively with other Foundation activities.
This joined-up approach will build greater synergy with the Foundation’s wider health and wellbeing work, including the trusted relationships and learning developed through Head 4 Health. It will help the team reach people beyond matchdays, create clearer routes into support and work alongside local organisations so that activity complements – rather than duplicates – existing provision across the city.
By combining the unique reach of Wolves, the delivery expertise of Wolves Foundation and the knowledge of specialist partners, Together Against Suicide will continue to make it easier to ask a simple but potentially life-changing question: Ow Am Ya?
The story so far
“From those initial early conversations with the Premier League and Roman Kemp, Together Against Suicide is a campaign which has emerged to become a really powerful movement in supporting mental health,” says Clowes.
“We were proud to be one of the clubs involved in the project when it was launched as a pilot, and proud to still be one of three Championship clubs involved alongside the 20 teams from the Premier League.
“The success of the initiative is due to a real team effort from so many different people at Wolves – colleagues from across the Foundation and the club – and the stories staff have heard on both matchdays and during the training shows just how important the project continues to be.
“Working closely with the Samaritans, and funded by the Premier League, Together Against Suicide is already playing such an important role in providing so much help and support to people who need it, and once again shows the value of football in delivering such a powerful impact in communities across the country.”
Premier League director community Nick Perchard said: “Through Together Against Suicide, we want to use the power and reach of football to encourage conversations around suicide prevention to tackle the stigma around this important issue and ensure fans know that support is available.
“Working in partnership with Samaritans and with the support of the Department of Health and Social Care, we want more people to feel confident to start a conversation, checking-in on those around them, and to seek help when they need it.
“Football stadiums bring people together and provide an important setting to reach supporters who may be struggling. Wolves and Wolves Foundation have embraced the initiative, building on their existing work through wellbeing matchday staff at Molineux, and a dedicated Wellbeing Officer helping to extend training opportunities and support into the wider community.”
If you or someone you know needs support, Samaritans can be contacted free, day or night, on 116 123. On a Molineux matchday, supporters can also approach any steward and ask to speak to a member of the Wolves safeguarding team.
