Roadshows 2011 - how we got the nation talking

In summer 2011, we hit the streets (and the fields!) of England with a series of roadshows aimed at getting people talking about mental health.

Our ‘It’s time to talk’ advertising broke the silence around mental health – but we wanted to take our message further, into local communities across the country. We recruited an army of over 700 volunteers to start conversations about mental health with the general public, to get people thinking differently about what it means to live with a mental health problem.

We partnered with local organisations to create a space in town centres and festivals, desgined to get the conversation going (for example, we handed out postcards with messages such as “How u feeling?” and “Are you OK?”). Each of our volunteers worked a three hour shift, in which they approached passers by and invited them over to our special Time to Change area, to relax on our sofas, and have a cup of tea and a chat about mental health.

"The three hours I spent volunteering were three hours I will never forget...I had the opportunity to meet many lovely people who visited the stand and who touched my heart deeply and at the end we were completely on a high and felt such a buzz from the whole experience."

Jules, Leeds volunteer

Where we've been

We travelled the length and breadth of the country, to Leeds, Cambridge, Islington, Greenwich, Harrow, Durham, Norwich, Southampton, Exeter, Solihull, Sheffield, Taunton and Liverpool - and were joined by hundreds of fantastic volunteers who helped us start thousands of conversations about mental health.  Check out our photo report or read our roadshow blogs to get a flavour of what it's all about.

Want to run your own event?

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