Here4Hope Annual Event
Here4Hope Annual Event
Annually in the fall Here4Hope focuses on an event or campaign designed to engage the community in promoting life, decreasing stigma and encouraging help seeking. Intended to reach as many as possible in the community activities have involved children and youth, families and seniors across rural Wellington.
Here4Hope 2023
Challenging Misconceptions about Mental Health
Tyler Smith is one of the 13 survivors of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash. Tyler's courageous journey is not just about physical recovery, but how he needed to challenge his misconceptions about mental health and trauma to fully heal.
He aims to inspire and connect with others using his own experience to further mental health recognition and healing after trauma.
Feedback on the Event
“Tyler was amazing. More people in the community need to hear his story.”
“He was amazing so many people could relate to his feelings.”
“This was a very educational and heartfelt event.”
“It was helpful to hear of his journey through grief and what worked for him to heal.”
Here4Hope 2022
The 2022 event Supporting Employee Mental Health gathered professionals from across sectors for a complimentary lunch and to hear from Mary Ann Banyton, a workplace relations specialist. Mary Ann discussed overcoming some common challenges workplaces face in fostering psychologically safe culture and strategies for supporting employee mental health were shared.
Here4Hope 2021
The 2021 campaign called Stories4Hope focused on the power of story in recovery, reducing stigma and increasing help seeking.
The above sequence of inspiring visual stories was shared on social media.
A four-episode podcast series featured poignant interviews with community guests who shared their personal journey and stories of resilience. These can be found at Stories4Hope.
Youth also gathered for a one-day multi-arts experience and explored resiliency through creativity (see video).
Here4Hope 2020
In 2020 the Messages4hope campaign was created to enable community members to reach out and stay connected to each other while following all the Covid 19 Public Health guidelines.
40,000 postcards were printed and distributed in the Wellington Advertiser, in schools and libraries. A social media campaign distributed sharable digital postcards with playful images of gratitude and hope. School children wrote encouraging messages on postcards that were delivered to first responders, healthcare workers and seniors in long term care homes.
The campaign was so successful holiday postcards were launched and messages4hope are still available.
Here4Hope 2019
Conversations About Mental Health and Suicide featured Cheryl Pounder two-time Olympic gold medalist and a panel of community members touched by suicide.
Cheryl’s personal story of how she grew through her pain highlighted the importance of taking care of your own mental health. Members of the community panel openly shared reflections on their personal journeys through suicide attempts and loss.
Service providers were on hand to answer questions and gift bags with local resources were provided to 350 community members in attendance.
Cheryl also took her message to 600 students at local schools engaging them in finding their unique strength with a powerful and energizing presentation.