Time to Change

Adam with his pledge board

Adam, The Lord Mayor and Elizabeth pose for a photo

On Wednesday, Big Boys Should Cry joined forces with Leeds NHS and Rethink to support the Time to Change programme at the “Balls” to stigma event in Leeds City Centre. It was a fantastic day and we got to meet some great people working to raise awareness of mental health.

The event encouraged members of the public to make a pledge to do something to help bring mental health out of the shadows.  There was also a Fifa Streets style football cage, facilitated by Leeds United, which was bustling with men and women all showing off their footballing skills, mine were A little rusty but I managed 58 tap ups.

Adam rolling back the years

I spoke to Sue Baker who is the Director of the Time to Change programme and she was very supportive of what we were doing at Leeds Met.  I told her about Torque, the new men only support group that we have set up, and also about the “How to Guide” I have put together to try to inspire other students to do something similar to what we have.

I finally met Alan White, Head of Men’s Health at Leeds Met, who pointed me in the direction of his new book, Promoting Men’s Mental Health which I am planning on reading over the weekend.  This campaign has not only developed my Public Relations skills, but it has also got me interested in mental health and the barriers men face in seeking counselling.

We also got to meet The Lord Mayor, Councillor Judith Elliott, who was  a lovely lady and also very supportive of our campaign. Her jewellery and outfit were equally as lovely, Leeds has very glamorous mayor!

We had a great time at the “Balls” to stigma event and it has really spurred us on to make Torque a success.  Torque will be holding its first meeting on Tuesday and the team will be working over the weekend to try to spread the word and make sure it is well attended.

Elizabeth will be going home for the summer this week and I start full-time at Ptarmigan Bell Pottinger, however this does not mean the momentum will slow down.  We have been asked to write feature articles for some pretty cool magazines which I am very excited about, so watch this space.

If you are not already following us on Twitter then get your backside to twitter.com/boysshouldcry so you can stay in touch with what we are talking about.

Oh and go and pledge for Time to Change www.time-to-change.org.uk/ it’s a fantastic campaign!!

Adam and Liz

BBSC recognised by Leeds Met Students’ Union

Last week the Big Boys Should Cry team and the rest of the Students Union PR department celebrated the end of a fantastic academic year at the Leeds Met Students’ Union Participation Awards.  It has been an incredibly productive year for the whole department and most of us leave to go on placement in the next few months , I am confident we have left the department in capable hands and am sure it will go from strength to strength.

The awards ceremony was a very grand affair, taking place in the Ghandi Hall at the Headingley Campus.  The annual event celebrates the success of students at Leeds Met and categories range from volunteer of the year to best campaign of the year.

Our campaign was up for best campaign of the year against some other fantastic student successes.  We won the award for the second year running (See picture right) and I also got to present the award for the student who I thought deserved the title as “PR student of the year”.  I could not look any further than Elizabeth Taylor who has truly been amazing this year and PR students looking to give themselves an edge in the industry should take a leaf out of her book.   Elizabeth starts her placement at Disney in London in July.   

The event was an unprecedented success and a big thankyou must go to Ash Lucas and her team from the Students’ Union team.  We are hoping to enter the campaign in some more awards so stay tuned for perhaps more celebrations.

 This was similar to my acceptance speech

 

 

 

 

Big Boys Should Cry launches new Blog

Hello and welcome to the very first blog post from the Big Boys Should Cry team.  We are very excited about our move online and will shortly have our website finished, hopefully complete with an online forum and we are also up to 17 followers on Twitter in just 3 hours.

Along with my fellow PR student Elizabeth Taylor we have created a campaign that has had a huge impact on the lives of male students at Leeds Metropolitan University.  What began as a simple poster, film and drama competition has evolved in to a national awareness campaign that is now being rolled out in around 15 universities.  If you would like to learn about how the campaign has gone from strength to strength then please view my e-portfolio which tells the story of how the campaign began and where we are today.

We recently joined forces with The Mental Wealth Project who have helped us to deliver our campaign to other colleges and universities.  Eddy Pinkney has created a fantastic network of counselling services and with his contact book ever-growing, I am very excited about the growth of BBSC. 

I have put together an information pack for any college or university interested in becoming involved with the campaign.  It includes an electronic version of the poster to be used on campus, as well as an introduction to our campaign and most importantly a “How to Guide” for students wanting to do something amazing at their college or university.  I am very proud of the “How to Guide” as it gives student an overview of what we have done, what problems we faced and how we overcame them, but it is also light-hearted and talks students through important processes in a fun way.

I will be blogging about the “How to Guide” very soon and hope that people will give me feedback and advice on how to improve it.  

We have also been lucky enough to have been given some funding by John Hamilton, from our university’s Wellbeing department, to pay for posters, t-shirts and stickers branded with our campaign poster.  These will be displayed at the upcoming “Balls” to stigma event which is being run by the NHS in Leeds on Wednesday the 12th of May.  The event begins at 10.30am and finishes at 4pm and aims to “reduce stigma around men’s mental health“.

The event will be fun-filled with interactive activities, a football challenge and a Time to Change mosaic pledge board that challenges stigma.  There will als be a change to win a signed Leeds United FC shirt, who by then could be a Championship side. Fingers Crossed!

I have started this blog to keep people up to date with what is going on with the BBSC campaign.  I hope that people will comment on the blog and let me know what they think of our campaign and perhaps even give us some advice, because afer all we are just two second year PR students learning as we go.

Adam and Elizabeth