As you more eagle eyed readers may know, this week, the 10th October, was World Mental Health Day. As days go this was a big one for both Off The Record and the Mentality team and one we were eagerly anticipating. With the help of Off the Record the Mentality Volunteers managed to fill the entire week out with workshops and stalls in several schools, including Bristol Met, Brunel Academy, Redland Green, Bristol cathedral school and Orchard School.
We went into each school to promote Off the Record, talked about mental health and Broke down any stigma. We did this by playing several games including myth buster and guess the celebrity all made by mentality volunteers. We also played a game we like to call the ‘Washing line of Wonder’. This involved getting groups of young people to write something great about each other on a piece of paper clothing and pegging it on a washing line. The aim of this game was to promote positive mental health, to show the important of support and to illustration how good it is to give and receive positive comments. By entertainment (and rewards!) we managed to attract lots of young people.
We got lots of great feedback and saw 1000’s of students! What was even better was the amount of interest as young people came up to us and asked all sorts of questions about mental health and Off the Record in general. We handed tons of badges and OTR leaflets which was great, too.
Here’s a quote from a Mentality volunteer, Alex:
“I really enjoyed going into schools and talking to others. They all seemed really up for and asked loads of questions. It was great to hear different viewpoints and ideas of promoting good mental health.”