The purpose of our Reachout project is to reduce mental health stigma by training, supporting and informing public sector organisations and the wider community. We provide workshops and run stalls at events, which are delivered by people with lived experience of mental health. Our aim is to educate and raise awareness around mental health and to encourage people to talk about their own mental wellbeing without shame, embarrassment or stigma.
Reachout
We want to use stronger messaging to break the stigma, so that more local police and other organisations can join us in our movement towards Disability Justice. Join Reachout if you’re passionate about making an impact on public services for the better of the mental health community.
We are proud to announce that we have won funding for some of the activities within Reachout, in a new project called Reachout Create. This is coming 10 years after our funding ceased in 2014! The funding allows us to host 30 creative workshops over the next two years, which will contribute to our Reachout Challenge training materials. The free creative workshops will also give us more opportunities for community building with mental health service users in Croydon. Click the logo to find out more about our upcoming in-person and online workshops.
The Hear Us Reachout Create project is possible thanks to funding from the London Community Foundation through the Adobe Fund.
The Reachout Challenge is Hear Us’ project focused on fighting the stigma and discrimination of mental health conditions. We are a team of volunteer trainers with lived experience of various mental health conditions. We visit organisations across London to raise awareness and change perceptions about mental health. Our trainings encourage the organisations we work with to have a more ‘open policy’ towards mental health, enabling their staff to talk about their mental wellbeing without shame and embarrassment. In our new Steering Group, we’re having discussions about how to make our Mental Health Awareness training more impactful.
While we work on bringing Reachout Create to life, we will continue to provide the Metropolitan Police specialist Crisis and Hostage Negotiators with mental health awareness training sessions. We have four sessions over the next year, supported by their kind donations which are much needed to run the sessions. We are always looking for more volunteers to help run these trainings. If you have lived experience of a police interaction in a time when you really needed mental health support (positive or negative!) then Sign Up to volunteer for Reachout and you can join us on an upcoming session at the Police Federation in Leatherhead. Contact us to join our Steering Group if you would like your story to be a part of our training.
We interviewed Inspector Lynette Pearce’s about the Reachout Challenge sessions at Hendon Police College.
May Elroubi
Reachout Challenge Coordinator
Hear Us
Orchard House
15a Purley Road
South Croydon
Surrey
CR2 6EZ
Email: reachout.challenge@hear-us.org
Webpage: www.hear-us.org/reachout/