Back in January 2015, OTR’s Mentality Project volunteers developed a list of 15 tasks that they were going to achieve that year.
By far, they have smashed every target they set themselves!
Here are a few highlights from Mentality’s year…
- In less than a year, the Mentality volunteers have spoken to over 1,500 young people about language around mental health. They delivered over 82 workshops in schools, talked on local radio, bucket collected in supermarkets and delivered their campaign at an event in London run by Department of Health!
- They challenged the Mental Health Minster on how he is going to ensure changes in mental health services.
- Mentality debated with a number of professionals, over many sessions, how services should be changed. This included work with Ellen from Youth Health Watch (who is one of the nicest people you can ever work with!)
- They launched a new mental health campaign called My Mental Health is not an Adjective and as a result, many people in Bristol continue to discuss the language around mental health; questioning the way we talk about mental health and how by doing it the wrong way, it’s easy to add to the stigma many people face!
- Mentality launched OTR’s first ever Thuderclap for the aforementioned language campaign! It was a new tool, however it allowed the group to get a big shout-out over social media! On World Mental Health Day, over 1.9k people saw Mentality’s campaign message.
- The Mentality volunteers went away for the weekend and had an awesome time!
- Mentality are encouraging many other young people to campaign for better understanding, including with Rife who are an ace team and Youth Council who are so passionate about their cause!
Now we are in 2016, Mentality have new goals and are planning on taking over the world.. one step at a time! 😉 Keep an eye out for us! And thank you to everyone for supporting our work!
