Bounce Works + Ruth Gaughan
WE MATCHED BOUNCE WORKS, A TECH FOR GOOD STARTUP COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE EMOTIONAL WELLBEING OF CHILDREN, WITH PROGRAMME DIRECTOR RUTH, TO HELP THEIR PRODUCT GO GLOBAL.
Bounce Works is an innovative tech for good providing mental health resources for children. They launched Apart of Me, a game giving players access to the world’s first virtual world helping young people deal with grief. The game was designed by experts in child bereavement and family psychology to function as an emotional support system, helping turn a family's nightmare into a reservoir of hope and wisdom for future generations.
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen Apart of Me become particularly relevant, with in-person mental health resources less available due to social distancing. The grieving process may also be complicated by limits on movement and gathering, such as rules against visiting loved ones in hospital and restrictions on funerals.
Unresolved grief is known to be very dangerous: 25% of under 20s who die by suicide have experienced childhood bereavement, and 41% of youth offenders have experienced childhood bereavement compared to 4% of the general population. As a result, Bounce Works see this as a crucial time to provide mental health resources to grieving children and families.
Bounce Works were looking for help taking their brand international, allowing larger numbers of people to access their platform. We matched them with Ruth Gaughan, a Programme Director at Genuine X / Jack Morton, who used her experience launching digital campaigns across EMEA to help plan and implement the expansion.
“In the few months Ruth joined our team, she threw herself completely in with dedication, compassion, and skill. She helped us with a number of different projects but her biggest contribution has been her creating a map of our organisation and guiding us to a model of decentralised working with self-managing teams. We are so grateful for Ruth’s invaluable contribution.”