Keepie uppie

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helper

Setting up this activity

• Before everyone arrives, inflate enough balloons that everyone in the group will have one.
• Inflate one more balloon and write ‘Wellbeing’ on it with the pen.
• Print out copies of the ‘Better mental health for all script.’

Run the activity

1. Give out copies of the ‘Better mental health for all script.’ Everyone should read through the script - the group could take turns reading it aloud. Ask the group about the causes of mental health issues listed on the script and see if they know any others.
2. Now give out the balloons and pens. Everyone should write their name and a cause of a mental health issue for a young person on their balloon with the pen, such as falling out with a friend, losing a treasured item, or doing badly in a test at school or college. They may choose one that they have experienced themselves or something that has happened to a friend or family member. 
3. Everyone should stand in a circle in the centre of the room, holding their balloons.
4. Give the balloon with ‘Wellbeing’ on it to one person and tell them to go and stand in the middle of the circle.
5. The person in the middle of the circle should bounce both their own balloon and the ‘Wellbeing’ balloon lightly into the air, take care to stop both balloons touching the ground. They may use any part of their body to do so.
6. When one of the balloons floats close to someone in the circle, they should bounce it back into the air and join the person in the middle, adding their own balloon to the two already in the air. There should now be two people keeping three balloons from touching the ground.
7. Each time a balloon floats near someone in the circle, they should join in and add their balloon to those in the air.
8. Everyone should work together to keep all of the balloons from touching the ground. If someone’s balloon touches the ground, the person with their name on the balloon must collect it and return to the circle.
9. If you've a large group, an adult volunteer or young leader should choose people at random from the circle to join in rather than wait for one of the balloons to float their way.
10. Once everyone has joined the middle of the circle, tell the group to catch the ‘Wellbeing’ balloon. The person who does so is the winner. This should encourage the players to stick closely to the ‘Wellbeing’ balloon - something important for them to think about in real life.
11. Everyone should go back to their ‘Better mental health for all script.’  
12. Explain that the game was similar to what life can be like for a young person who is struggling with a mental health issue. They might find that they have to deal with lots of issues at the same time and should always remember to think about their wellbeing and to ask for help from others around them.

This activity helps contribute towards some of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Find out more about the SDGs, and how Scouts across the world are getting involved.