Given it was our first General Assembly, we were extremely grateful to YMCA Europe for gifting us time on Friday morning to share with all the delegates our anti-stigma mental health campaign - #IAMWHOLE.
The origins of the campaign demonstrate to us everything that makes YMCA such an amazing movement to be part of.
In the true spirit of family and sharing, the campaign came out of a local association in England and was offered to us as the national association to take right across England and Wales to reach even more young people.
In that very same spirit, we came to the General Assembly to do the same with our family across Europe. To share with YMCAs across Europe the opportunity to be a part of and own #IAMWHOLE 2017.
Thankfully the sharing didn’t stop there. After the presentation and throughout the course of the General Assembly, people shared with us stories around mental health difficulties and how they are affecting young people in their country, and what their YMCAs were doing in response.
Even when stepping out of the lift to leave the hotel, we were in conversations with our colleagues from across the movement in Europe about how we can share #IAMWHOLE across Europe.
Inevitably, the challenge we now face is turning these conversations into tangible actions that utilise the work, and the spirit of, the #IAMWHOLE campaign to help support young people with mental health difficulties all over the world.
As we all head back to our own associations and councils, and the day-to-day of life in YMCA takes over, it is important that the spirit of the General Assembly does not fade. It is important that the unity of the YMCA movement prevails, and that the openness of individuals to work together continues.
As we head towards the launch of #IAMWHOLE on World Mental Health Day 2017, we look forward to working with our fellow movements to amplify the campaign and extend our reach to young people all over the world.
Phillippa and Richard
YMCA England and Wales
Thanks for this post. I thought the presentation and response was excellent. Super job.
ReplyDeleteProud to work alongside you two.
ReplyDelete