Coventry College teams up with charity for mental health awareness

Students and staff @CoventryCollege are teaming up with a charity to raise awareness about #MentalHealth. 

The city’s leading further education college has teamed up with the charity Mind to raise awareness of mental health.

The initiative comes hot on the heels of Mental Health Awareness Week, which was aimed at focussing on achieving good mental health and help for those in need of support.

The partnership forms part of the college’s pledge to offer 2021 hours of community service as part of Coventry’s status as the UK City of Culture – Coventry College is a partner of the UK City of Culture 2021.

As coronavirus restrictions are eased, the college and mental health charity will begin looking for volunteering opportunities.

Mind has also offered college staff access to free online mental health webinars as part of the collaboration.

There are also plans to bring the charity’s resources bus onto the college on a monthly basis.

Sarah Strover, learning technologist at the college who organised the partnership, said: “An estimated one in four people will experience some sort of mental health problem in any given year.

“By working with Mind as part of this initiative, we hope to raise awareness of the help and support available.

“Many of us will have faced struggles during the coronavirus pandemic and partnerships such as this play an important role in highlighting support which is available.

“We are still at an early stage in developing the project, but we are planning to take part in a range of activities such as fundraising in the city centre.”

Mental Health Awareness Week was started 21 years ago and has grown as an event to raise awareness across the UK and globally.

This year’s theme to the week was nature and the benefits it can have on mental health.