Mental Health Awareness Week - #Pendemic Pals
#Pendemic Pals
My name is Kaitlyn and I am a volunteer at HeadStart Hull. Our volunteer group is made up of young people aged 11 to 25, who are passionate about mental health and emotional wellbeing. We design creative campaigns by young people for young people.
Our latest campaign is called Pendemic Pals and will run from the 18th – 24th May as part of “Mental Health Awareness Week”. The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year is kindness. Kindness is very powerful and has the ability to unlock our shared humanity. Kindness strengthens relationships, develops community and deepens solidarity. It is a cornerstone of our individual and collective mental health. Kindness is something that all human beings need to experience and practice to be fully alive and happy. As Morgan Freeman said, “How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time”.
During these times, people have lost their jobs, are unable to see their families and friends and feel more alone than ever before. So we are asking as many social media users to think about others in their community who may be experiencing loneliness during isolation, and write them a letter, poem or story, to help cheer them up, help them feel noticed and connected to their community and remind them that “You Are Not Alone”.
So please spread some extra kindness during Mental Health Awareness Week by sending letters of love to random people, whether that is leaving a positive note on a lamppost for pedestrians to see or posting some letters through people’s letterboxes. The more positivity that you can spread, the better because people need it.
When writing your letters make sure that you:
Make it colourful
Add a note to challenge the receiver of the letter to spread kindness to others in this way
Make sure that they know that they can share a photo, video or message about the letter they have found, or take a picture of them posting their own letter and upload to social using the hashtag #PendemicPals as well as the Mental Health Awareness Week tags of #KindnessMatters #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek
If you are struggling with finding inspiration on what to write look on Pinterest, read blogs and poetry to try to get an idea of what you want to include. Here is an example of an open letter.
If you would like to more about our campaigns or are interested in becoming a volunteer please visit our website www.howareyoufeeling.org.uk
Thank you, Kaitlyn