Time to Change. Time to Challenge.
Earlier this year, Time To Change Islington launched a campaign to promote positive conversations about Mental Health. The mission was to raise awareness, challenge the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, and to change how people think and act about them.
The campaign secured national Time to Change funding to create local promotional materials designed by a range of Champions and Partners. This included a series of postcards, mugs, coasters, T-shirts and activity packs, with eye-catching designs that would to promote the key messages of Time to Change:
- Change the conversation that we have about mental health
- Ask how people are, and Ask Twice
- The importance and Power of Small conversations about how someone really is
SLT were delighted to be asked to take part, and put forward designs by one of our volunteers, Cady, who has been volunteering with us since 2015.
Hannah Kalmanowitz. SLT’s CEO, said “I am delighted with SLT’s ever strengthening work with Time To Change. I am particularly pleased to see some SLT participants and volunteers so passionate about this valuable work, where they do a fine job in representing SLT.”
Cady was thrilled to have his painting ‘Mirror’ chosen to be used and printed for one of the final campaign designs.
“On the 4th January, Nicola Maskrey, a Time to Change champion, contacted me about a project she was working on and she was interested in my art work. I sent her eight abstract paintings and she chose ‘Mirror’, a painting I completed at University. She was primarily interested in something relaxing, calming and uplifting, with the theme of Time to Talk, exploring the message of mental health and how we are.
I met Nicola at The Stuart Low Trust, where she did a presentation for Time to Change Islington, talking about how we think and act about mental health problems. I felt that this was a great opportunity for me to get involved and I was particularly pleased that I was chosen for the design of postcard and a t-shirt created by myself. For me, if meant that it showed real lived experience of Mental health and demonstrated a sense of leadership and achievement!
I believe Nicola chose the painting that was most powerful. ‘Mirror’ is a painting that reflects moments of walking down that long corridor often seen in hospital wards. A frightening experience and traumatic period of my life. But the bright colours draw on a less scary situation and brings light at the end of the tunnel. During a difficult time for many of us, with the covid pandemic, Nicola and I have had many conversations about the process of producing postcards and a t-shirt. I am really looking forward to seeing the results.”
– Cady, Stuart Low Trust Volunteer.
