- The ‘Keep Being You’ campaign is a partnership between well-known, Dorset founded restaurant chain The Stable and local mental health charity, Dorset Mind.
- The campaign aims to bring a smile to people’s faces, helping them feel valued and appreciated when they realise that someone is thinking about and caring specifically for them.
- The partnership has developed ethical, carefully curated, locally sourced gift-boxes, with handmade elements made by their staff and volunteer teams.
- More than 8 in ten (83%) people have experienced early signs of poor mental health including feeling anxious, stressed, having low mood or trouble sleeping in the last 12 months (Public Health England 2019).
- Dorset Mind believes that mental health affects everyone, whether someone is directly or indirectly affected, everyone is susceptible to feeling low or struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.
- The overall campaign will empower the Dorset Mind community to keep being themselves, exercise self-care and to value their own mental health and wellbeing as well of that of others too.
The campaign will launch on ‘Blue Monday’, an awareness day which is claimed to be the saddest day of the year. Although the day may be pseudoscience, the charity recognises that January can be difficult for many of us, and so has several initiatives throughout the month to counteract the January blues, including RED January, a month-long fitness event for the Dorset community. With the launch of this campaign, the joint team from Dorset Mind and The Stable will be gifting ‘Keep Being You’ boxes to give people across Dorset a boost, offering them life-affirming, uplifting, thoughtful gifts from within their home county. Gifts will include affirmations and motivational calendars, handmade, recycled candles and Dorset Tea to enjoy with a friend or loved-one, encouraging people to connect and speak up as a tool to support better wellbeing within ourselves and those around us too.
The first series of boxes will launch this January, with the second series of boxes being launched later on in the year. Each new box will contain new surprises and different, special gifts to look forward to. The first stage of the campaign will involve offering the boxes as gifts as acts of kindness on behalf of the charity, it’s volunteers and The Stable. Eventually, Dorset Mind would like to sell the boxes as a fun, engaging way to support their vital mental health services across the county.
Marianne Storey, CEO of Dorset Mind said:
“Keep Being You has a simple but impactful, life-affirming, empowering message behind it. It’s not necessarily just for people who are directly affected by a mental health problem, as it recognises that we are all susceptible to poor mental health. The campaign highlights how we all need to take time out for ourselves, to connect with both ourselves and with each other, and to keep being who we are, as that’s the best we can possibly do in life.
It’s human nature to constantly compare one’s self to others, whether it’s to colleagues, neighbours, friends, or in the heightened sense that social media brings with infinite comparisons in an online world. This is something that we know young people can particularly struggle with.
That is why we have created Keep Being You. To bring the Dorset community together to value each other’s individuality with small acts of kindness in the form of our KBY boxes. We want to tell people that what they’re doing in life right now truly is amazing. We want to tell them not to change, to stay true to who they are and to what they believe in.”
David Gough, Operations Director of The Stable said:
“I am so looking forward to seeing and hearing about people being genuinely moved by the thoughtfulness of others when they receive this box.
I think it will motivate those that are supporting others to support more, and those that need support to feel better about themselves. Even in just a small way, it will encourage people to share some time together and provoke some positive thinking with those that might struggle.
The sentiment behind it all is a great way to give people a boost, because being you is why people love you and that’s important to remember when you might be having.
I feel a personal connection with the work that Dorset Mind does. I always wanted to work with a charity, not just raise money, but to make a difference to the environment in our business. We have seen a real shift in our team wellbeing and I want this to continue. I am proud of how we view mental health in The Stable.”
