Men are often encouraged to speak up when they are struggling, but finding the right person, place or moment to do so can be much harder. A new Liverpool-born initiative hopes to help change that by giving men somewhere to connect before they reach crisis point.
CLRTY is a men’s mental health app, community and movement built around friendship, shared interests, sport and real-world meetups. It aims to give men somewhere to belong — whether they are experiencing mental health difficulties, going through a major life change or simply feeling lonely and looking to meet new people. Alongside its community features, the platform will provide a Wellbeing Hub and signposting to professional and urgent support.
Created here in Liverpool, the idea grew from an intensely personal experience for the man behind CLRTY, who has co-funded and developed the platform while continuing to work 12-hour shifts. Ahead of its official launch, we spoke to him about the moment that inspired it, why connection can be such an important first step and his ambition to take CLRTY from Liverpool into communities around the world.
Content note: This interview includes references to suicidal thoughts.
For anyone discovering CLRTY for the first time, how would you describe it and what do you hope it will offer men?
CLRTY is a men’s mental health app, community and movement built to bring men out of isolation and into genuine connection. The idea is to reach men before, during and after the difficult periods of their lives, rather than waiting until somebody reaches crisis before we start asking what we can do.
Through CLRTY, men will be able to connect one-to-one, join communities, find other men with shared interests or experiences, arrange and attend meetups, get involved in sport and activities, and build genuine friendships and brotherhood. Alongside that will be our Wellbeing Hub and clear signposting towards professional and urgent support when somebody needs it.
But you don’t have to be struggling to belong to CLRTY. You might simply be lonely. You might have moved somewhere new, lost touch with your mates, become a dad, gone through a relationship breakdown, lost your job, be grieving, struggling financially or just want somebody to play football, golf or go for a coffee with.
That’s why connection is such a massive part of this. CLRTY isn’t a replacement for professional mental health services. I want it to work alongside them by helping men connect earlier and making the right support easier to find when it’s needed.
My ambition is much bigger than simply launching an app. I want CLRTY to become a global organisation and movement, eventually working alongside football, boxing, MMA, workplaces, public services, education, the armed forces and communities around the world.
CLRTY grew out of an incredibly difficult period in your own life. When did you first begin to realise that your experience could become the starting point for something capable of helping other men?
CLRTY came from the darkest point of my own life. There was a morning when I didn’t want to be here anymore. I kissed my wife goodbye. I went to my youngest sons room and knelt beside him. Then I went to my eldest son’s room held his hand and apologised before leaving his room. It was when I got to his door that I heard his little voice saying “Hi Daddy.” This is the point I found my clarity, the point I chose to stay. What followed was me trying to rebuild myself all over again. And as I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about how many other men could be getting frighteningly close to that same point without anybody around them knowing.
Because I know how easy it is for somebody to look at your life from the outside and have absolutely no idea what’s happening inside your head. That’s where the idea for CLRTY really came from.
I couldn’t change what I’d been through, but I could decide what I did with it. I’ve since co-funded CLRTY myself and driven its development without a team behind me, alongside continuing to work 12-hour shifts. I’ve taken it from an idea born from the lowest point of my life to a real platform ready to become something much bigger.
And I’ve done that because I genuinely believe it can make a difference. I found my clarity after nearly losing my battle. Now I want CLRTY to help other men find theirs before they reach the point I did.
Community, meetups and shared activities are a major part of the idea. Why do you believe connection and a sense of belonging can be so important for men’s mental health?
We constantly tell men to talk, and talking is important, but I think we also have to ask ourselves where are we giving them to go? I got given a powerpoint presentation to watch when I was at my lowest… And we wonder why men bottle it all up. For a man who has spent years keeping everything inside, sitting down and immediately saying, “I’m struggling with my mental health” can feel like an enormous first step.
With CLRTY, that first step could simply be joining a football game. It could be a run, a walk, golf, a coffee, a meetup or joining a community around something you enjoy, you can create that community.
There’s no pressure to immediately tell everybody what’s going on in your life, you can just turn up. And that’s where something powerful can start happening. Strangers become familiar faces. Familiar faces become mates. Trust develops. And suddenly, when life does become difficult, instead of sitting alone with everything, that man might already have somebody he feels comfortable enough to message.
That’s why community, sport, meetups and brotherhood aren’t extras I’ve added to CLRTY. They’re fundamental to what CLRTY is. We need to stop only telling men to reach out. We need to give them somewhere to reach
What response have you received from men since you began speaking publicly about CLRTY and your own experiences?
I’ve been inundated with messages from men since I started speaking publicly about my experiences and about what I’m building with CLRTY. Men have trusted me with their stories, their struggles and things they’ve sometimes carried silently for a long time. And I reply to them all, there have been nights when I’ve found myself still awake at 3 or 4 in the morning, working through messages because if somebody has found the courage to reach out to CLRTY, I don’t want him sitting there wondering whether anybody has listened.
The app hasn’t even officially launched yet, but I’m already trying to create the culture I want CLRTY to have from day one. We show up. We listen. We care.
We stand beside men, and when somebody needs professional or urgent help, we encourage and signpost them towards the appropriate support. I’m not a mental health professional, and CLRTY will never pretend to replace professional services. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be human beings who genuinely care about what somebody else is going through.
These aren’t followers, statistics or numbers on a screen to me. They’re men. They’re somebody’s son, dad, husband, brother or best mate. Sometimes I’ve sacrificed sleep to answer them before getting up and carrying on with my own work and CLRTY the next day. But if I’m asking men to believe that CLRTY will stand with them, then I believe I have to demonstrate what those words actually mean.
The app isn’t even officially through the doors yet and men are already showing up. So I’m going to keep showing up for them.
Ultimately, what change do you want CLRTY to create in the way men connect with one another and look after their mental health?
I want to change the point at which we reach men. We cannot keep waiting until somebody reaches breaking point before we decide his mental health matters.
I want to completely break the belief that when a person simply puts one post up or says a few words for mens mental health month that that’s it that’s all that’s needs to be done. It should be every single day we fight against and break the stigma surrounding mens mental health not on selected days or month.
I want checking on your mate properly to become normal. Asking twice. Listening properly. I want men to be able to say they’re struggling without believing that makes them less of a husband, father, friend or provider.
But I don’t just want CLRTY to raise awareness. I want it to create action. I want CLRTY communities in towns and cities. Men meeting through sport, activities and shared experiences. Partnerships with football clubs, boxing and MMA, workplaces, public services, education and the armed forces. And eventually I want CLRTY reaching men around the world.
My ambition is for CLRTY to become one of the biggest communities and movements for men’s mental health, while never losing sight of why I started it in the first place, the individual man. The one sitting somewhere tonight believing he’s completely alone.
I’ve taken CLRTY this far without a team behind me, co-funding it myself and building it around 12-hour shifts because I believe completely in what this could become.
I’m prepared to give everything I’ve got to make it work, not because I want to build the biggest company. Because I want to build something capable of reaching men before it’s too late.
Finally, how can people find CLRTY, support its development or get involved?
Right now, my biggest challenge isn’t believing in CLRTY. It’s getting enough people to see it. I’ve driven the development and pushed it to this point without a team behind me.
The platform is built, the mission is clear. And I’m pushing it every single day because I know I can only reach so many men on my own. That’s why I’m asking people to help me give CLRTY a voice.
I want to hear from men who want to be part of the community, but I also want to speak with football clubs, sporting organisations, businesses, public services, education, potential partners, investors and people with platforms who genuinely believe in what we’re trying to change.
And you don’t need a huge following or money to help us. Simply follow CLRTY. Share something we’ve posted. Register for early access on the pre sign up link. Send it to your mate, have a conversation, ask somebody twice if they’re okay.
Because one share could put CLRTY in front of a man I could never reach myself. People can register Pre sign up https://hqclrty.co.uk/early-access. Find CLRTY on Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook.
I’ve taken CLRTY as far as I possibly can through my own resources, determination and belief. Now I’m calling for help to take it further. I don’t need CLRTY to become known for me. I need it to become known by the men who haven’t found their voice yet. There are men out there living their own version of the battle I once faced. I am going to do everything within my power to make sure fewer men ever have to believe they’re fighting alone. Together we stay.
