Heene Primary school raise mental health awareness and spread joy with NHS charity Hearts of Gold Campaign
17 February 2021
Across Sussex, over 70 schools and countless numbers of young people have taken part in Heads On’s Hearts of Gold campaign, spreading joy and hope in local communities whilst raising mental health awareness. Heads On is the official charity of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides specialist NHS mental health and learning disability services for people of all ages across Sussex, and for children and young people in Hampshire.
Heads On created a schools and young people’s project providing children’s mental health resources and a live stream with a local artist for young people to decorate gold hearts to display in their windows. Adults and children have also been sending one another a Heads On Hearts of Gold postcard to individuals and teams that have supported their mental health during the pandemic.
Lauren Watts, Mental Health Wellbeing Lead at Heene Primary, Worthing commented “Here at Heene Primary School, we understand the importance of raising the awareness of mental health and our feelings. Allowing our children to talk about wellbeing can only be a positive, which will not only benefit them throughout their lives but also spread out to support our wider community. To talk about our feelings is a way we can take charge of our wellbeing and to allow time for our children to explore this is crucial, especially during these current times. Our aim is, that this will encourage our children to be able to confidently seek out support should the need ever arise.”
“Taking part in a project such as Hearts of Gold puts mental health into the spotlight. Our staff embraced and aided our pupils to express their voices, be heard and importantly actively listen to each other. The hearts that now adorn our school are only a show of how essential such projects are within our school community. These hearts have grown and expanded to our pupils who remain at home during this lockdown because it reached all of our pupils regardless of whether they are learning at home or in school. There have been many discussions over Google Meets, where teachers have been able to reach their whole classes, listen to them and be impressed with the maturity of their young minds.”
Lauren concluded “Hearts of Gold has radiated throughout our school and reached not only our pupils but our staff which in turn has dispersed through our community enabling mental health to be an acceptable topic to share with our loved ones.”
Head of Charity at Heads On, Rachael Duke commented: “We are absolutely thrilled with the amount of mental health awareness this project has raised. Here at Heads On and Sussex Partnership, we have loved seeing all the hearts of gold in and around our own local communities and on social media. The act of sending a thank you card to a person or team who has support your mental health can really make their day; I know NHS mental health staff have been so happy to receive some of the cards themselves.”
“We really hope the project has brought adults and young people some joy and resources to help during the pandemic.”
Heads On rely on the generosity of the local community to continue with their Covid-19 response, supporting people who are most affected by the pandemic. If you would like to make a donation or get involved with fundraising please visit www.headsoncharity.org.
