By John Baron
A West Leeds group supporting men’s mental health has been awarded a £2,998 grant to continue its work with isolated men at risk of suicide.
Councillors on the Inner South West Community Committee awarded the Man About Town group funding to continue its work in the Armley and New Wortley area.
The Man About Town Music Group provides male suicide prevention support to adult men. It meets every Wednesday for two hours between 10am and 12pm at the James McKenna Community Hub in Armley and regularly attracts around 10 members.
The application for funding stated: “Our group learns songs and performs concerts, most recently at the New Wortley Festival and Armley Festival. We use music and creativity as a hook to ignite a passion for performance and collaborative working.
“Our group would like to perform more concerts, and we have found that the equipment we often use is not fit for purpose leaving participants with worries and anxiety before and during performances.
“If successful with our bid we plan to buy equipment which will enable us to upskill our members in the use of professional personal address systems, microphones and mixing equipment. Once our members are comfortable with using the equipment we will work towards a concert in LS12 in March 2026.”
Councillors also approved £3,500 for new benches at Cragside Rec and Grayson Crest in the Kirkstall ward, and £598 for five grit bin refills in Armley. Ten grit bin refills in Kirkstall ward were approved at a cost of £1,197 along with three grit bins and salt for Kirkstall ward for £289.
They also agreed to fund £4,000 towards an inner south west youth summit.
The Inner South West Community Committee is made up of councillors from Armley and Kirkstall wards in West Leeds, plus Beeston & Holbeck and Hunslet & Riverside wards in South Leeds. It met at Leeds Civic Hall last Monday.
Update: This article was amended to clarify that the group now meets Wednesdays, rather than Mondays, as previously stated.
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