Mental Health Awareness Week 2025- Community

By Faye Jacklin, vice-president of Future Faces and Tax manager at Claritas Tax

Mental Health Awareness Week 2025 will take place from 12 to 18 May; this year’s theme is ‘community’.

Having a community around us, whether that is family, friends or colleagues can provide us with a sense of belonging and the vital support needed in difficult times.

Young professionals face many challenges in their personal and professional lives. I would like to highlight one particular area of difficulty that I personally faced and Future Faces members who work in professional services will be all too familiar with, professional exams.

A supportive work community

Stepping into the world of work fresh out of university, with minimal or no work experience is a shock to the system on its own but when you add professional exams into the mix, this is a whole new level of challenge.

For those who do not know me, I studied both the ICAEW ACA qualification and the CIOT CTA qualification while working full time at Claritas Tax. Despite finishing my exams nearly two years ago, the memories of trying to juggle full time work and study are still fresh in my mind and I think they will remain so for a while longer!

I know I would definitely not have made it through the exams without the support of my colleagues at Claritas, particularly the other graduates. There were only a few of us when I joined but there was already a strong sense of community, which has kept on growing with the addition of new graduates every year.

Having people around you who understand what you are going through is invaluable, not only to take you for that post-exam destress coffee/cocktail but to look out for you along the whole exam journey. I am really proud to be part of the Claritas graduate community and to be able to continue supporting new graduates as they start their career at Claritas.

Future Faces role in supporting young professionals

Since I have joined Future Faces I have met many other young professionals studying for professional qualifications and have witnessed members supporting one another through the process whether it’s at the initial application stage for a job with professional exams or encouraging them through the last few exams of a qualification.

Another angle of community support that Future Faces membership opens up is the mentoring scheme, an opportunity to be guided by an experienced professional in your field. For those reading this who like me have finished your professional exam journey, why not become a mentor to a Future Faces member and help a young professional through their exams by giving back to the Greater Birmingham community!

The personal development and wellbeing Future Faces working group are also on hand to provide support to Future Faces members. Will Crawford, working group lead and fellow vice president will be posting useful resources for members during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Pictured: Faye with some of the Claritas Tax graduates. (L-R): Roshan Paul, Faye Jacklin, Brandon Laroiya-McCarron, Natalie Lee and Mike Fahy