July 2026
Last week, members of the Sterling Services team swapped their site boots for football boots and headed to Powerleague for a five-a-side tournament organised by Black Capital Group, in partnership with their chosen charity for the year, Mindflow.
It was a great morning of friendly competition, plenty of laughs and a chance to catch up with other businesses. But behind the football was an important reason for bringing everyone together.
Mindflow is working to tackle the mental health crisis within construction and encourage more open conversations about mental wellbeing. The charity highlights a sobering statistic: every working day, two construction workers take their own lives.
Mindflow’s CEO, former Everton and England footballer Trevor Steven, has spent time speaking directly with people working across the sector to better understand the challenges they face. Research involving more than 1,400 workers found that 56% had experienced mental health struggles.
But the research also uncovered an important connection: a significant majority of those surveyed were football fans.
And that is where football comes in.
Football has an incredible ability to bring people together. Whether you play five-a-side, follow a team or just enjoy talking about the weekend’s results, it creates common ground. It can also provide a valuable social outlet, giving people a chance to step away from everyday pressures, spend time with others and feel part of a team.
For Mindflow, that shared connection provides an opportunity to make conversations around mental health feel more natural and accessible.
There can still be a stigma around talking about mental health, particularly among men. That does not mean people do not want to talk or support one another. Sometimes starting the conversation is simply the hardest part, and creating the right environment can make a real difference.
That is why events like the five-a-side tournament are about more than what happens on the pitch. They bring people together, raise awareness and put an important subject in front of people in a positive and familiar way.
Mindflow also has the support of some well-known names from the world of football, including Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler, John Barnes and Ally McCoist, helping the charity reach even more people and keep these conversations moving forward.
A huge thank you to Black Capital Group for bringing everyone together for such an enjoyable event and to Trevor Steven and the team at Mindflow for the important work they are doing.
We had a brilliant morning, and we were proud to be part of an event helping to shine a light on such an important cause.
