My first Time to Change event

Thursday 6th February marked national Time to Talk day which I explained in more detail in my previous blog. Our Time to Change Southampton and Portsmouth Hub had quite a big presence across both cities. I volunteered to help in Southampton, which happened to be my first time engaging with the general public as a part of Time to Change. In this blog, I hope to talk about the event we did, and what the experience was like at my first event.

For Time to Talk Day, we gave out free tea, coffee and bacon sandwiches to members of the public. We did not advertise much before the day as we wanted to almost catch people off guard and start a conversation about mental illness in a setting they would not usually expect. We were situated in three burger vans and one cafe (I mainly helped at the cafe). These locations were in areas where the customers were predominantly male, as men can tend to try and hold in their emotions and not ask for help a lot more. As it was to the general public, it also meant that we could have conversations with people who hadn’t really suffered with mental illness before, or who had struggled but never properly spoke about it before.

I have to admit, I was very nervous for the day. I get quite stressed in new situations and as stupid as it sounds, I really struggle getting up early in the morning and I had to get up at 7am which is very early for me (I like sleep okay). I had never been to an event like this and didn’t know how people would feel talking to me and about mental illness. This was helped by my social contact training as I felt a lot more equipped to deal with specific situations, but I was definitely still worried- it’s me, I worry about everything!

The day itself went really well! I struggled a bit at first talking to people but definitely felt my confidence grow as the day progressed. A lot of people were shocked and confused as to why they were getting free food and drinks (and a free travel mug for the drink). But what really shocked me was how open people were to talk about mental health and mental illness. So many people were opening up about their friends, family and even their own struggles with mental illness. I hate using stereotypes but these people were definitely not the type of people to talk about how they are feeling. It was so nice to see a completely different group of people than I’m used to really engaging and opening up. As a 19 year old girl, I often feel very underestimated and that people do not take me seriously but everybody was so friendly and seemed genuinely interested not only in what we were doing but what I had to say.

Not only did people talk to us, a lot of people took away leaflets, with some taking small piles of leaflets away to put in their businesses. And with word getting round that we were giving away free stuff, more and more people would turn up. I feel like we really achieved our goal of starting conversations and it was so nice to have the support of complete strangers with our campaign and ideals.

One conversation that really stood out to me was talking to a man who used to work in the police force and struggled a bit with a bad period of mental health. He was quite reluctant to accepting help and I honestly don’t feel like he would have even spoke about his struggles without me opening up about my own mental illness (especially PTSD). I feel like he really considered how he shouldn’t just try to suppress his feelings and its completely okay to talk to somebody if he was struggling. It was so nice to see him gradually feel that he could open up to me and tell a bit of his own story.

The final really nice aspect of the day was working with the other Champions. I feel like we worked really well as a team, and it is just so nice to share the common interest of wanted to end the stigma surrounding mental illness. We all shared some really good conversations with members of the public and even opened some doors for future activities.

So, my first event for Time to Change was incredible. I was absolutely knackered after but I felt like I was starting to make a difference. One of my major goals in life is to make a real difference in the world and this feels like the start of really making change. I can’t wait to volunteer more and more for this amazing organisation, and see where the future takes me.

If you are interested in becoming a Time to Change champion, it is quick and simple to do online: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/get-involved/time-change-champions/5-ways-champion/what-champion/understand-champion-role . All you need is to be over the age of 18, and to have lived experience- that’s it!

Thanks so much for reading!

Zoe x