Our History
The idea of Lil’ Leo was born just after the pandemic. During the pandemic, there was a rush towards bringing pets home but immediately after the pandemic; the rate of abandonment of pets skyrocketed to significant levels. The data from RSPCA is showed a very worrying trend.
This led to Leo, the therapy pet to be born as a lovable cartoon character Lil’ Leo. The mission of Lil’ Leo then became to reduce the rate of pet abandonment in the world by creating empathy and bonding with pets through a series of children’s illustrated books. Parallelly , Leo has been very active in supporting the local community in his therapy sessions visiting hospitals, nursing homes and schools. For his community engagement, he was the recipient of BBC Make a Difference Award in October of 2024.
At the same time, there has indeed been a steep rise in mental health issues among youth in the UK. As of 2023/24: About 1 in 5 young people aged 8 to 25 are estimated to have a probable mental health condition, with rates rising sharply since 2017, especially in the 17-19 age group. The number of emergency mental health referrals for children and young people increased by 10% between 2023 and 2024, with many facing long waits for NHS treatment—78,577 young people were waiting over a year for support in 2023/24, nearly half waiting over two years.
Around 32.8% of 17-24 year olds have self-harmed or attempted self-harm, rising to nearly 70% among those with a probable mental health condition.
Youth mental health crisis has worsened due to factors including economic strain from the cost-of-living crisis, social inequalities, and the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic
It was evident that there is something more that needs to be done. The community engagements with Leo themselves started transforming into larger well-being sessions for the community where the impact was felt by combining Leo’s pet therapy sessions with creative interventions & programmes in the community.
In order to further the impact in the community, Lil’ Leo CIC was incorporated.