On the 24th of November we decided on what we were going to do, we also decided we would do something for ourselves, our leaders Leanne, Shannon and Sara suggested we would do scrapbooks for ourselves so we could keep them. We put different types of things to do if we struggle in the future. We continued to do the scrapbooks for a couple of weeks.
On the 1st of Decemeber Leanne and Shannon done some mental health theory with us so we would have a better understanding of mental health so we knew how we could raise awareness. When we started our project we decided that we would go down and visit Jigsaw so our our leader Leanne contacted Avril the administrator in Jigsaw so we could go down and see the HUB, we went down to Jigsaw on the 4th of December, we came up with some questions before we went down to Jigsaw and we spoke to Juileann and Avril, we had loads of questions to ask them all about mental health and about Jigsaw.
On the 2nd of Feburary we done some more theory as we took a break from our project for a few weeks, and then on the 9th of Febuarary we done some more theory and planned what we were going to do next to raise awareness. We decided because smiling and laughing is a natural anti depressant we would play games with the young girls group which is the Girlz Aloud, we played these games on the 23rd of Feburaury in the hall in the youth project, we played the caterpillar race, stuck in the mud, chasing, dodgeball. We played these games for an hour and a half we could see the girls smiling and laughing for the whole thing. They asked us to do it again that they loved it.
Oh I almost forgot to say we decided on getting people to do a mental health video, it was very hard to get people to talk about mental health and how to cope, but we got 3 videos from people and they are from BRESSIE yea that’s right bressie we have also gotten two off one from a young person Jamie Harrington and another mental health activist Luke Clerkin. We tried to get another 2 people to do videos for us. On the 2nd of March we watched the videos that Bressie, Jamie and Luke sent us, we really enjoyed the videos and we learned alot from watching them. It showed us that anyone can go through some sturggles in their lives.
We decided on making frames with jigsaw pieces in them we painted the jigsaw pieces and wrote some nice motivational and inspirational quotes. On the 9th of March we decided we would start making the frames and keyrings as spring break was coming up and we wanted to get a stall to sell our items at it and to raise awareness at spring break.
On the 30th of April we planned what we were going to do, so we all got little jobs. Holly and Aine went to Aldi and bought some cookies so we could give them out. We all worked really hard together to stick some quotes on lollies so we could go around at spring break and hand them out for free. 1st of April we got everything ready for spring break. We made some more frames with jigsaw pieces inside and we are going to sell them. We are going to give out lollies aswell and we have stuck positive messages to the sticks of them to try make people have better self esteem, we wrote things like Stay Strong, You are Beautiful, Never give up and loads of other lovely messages on the lollies. We also tried to make fortune cookies which didn’t turn out to well but we’re not gonna give up were gonna try them again with our parents help at home.
What we are doing is going to help our community by hopefully putting a lot more smiles on peoples faces 😃we chose to do this for people who are having a bad time in life and to help to raise money for our local counciling agency because it is a great service and so many young people in our area have suffered or will suffer from mental health issues but don’t have the strenght to stand up and speak about it. But we hope to show that it’s ok to talk about your problems and also maybe help some people through hard times. Don’t forget smiling is a natural antidepressant :)
On the 2nd of April we went to spring break and sold glow sticks, cookies, keyrings, we didnt sell the frames but we had some with us. On the night of Spring break we decided what ever money we made that night we would donate it straight to Jigsaw as Avril was taking part in an Abseil in aid of Jigsaw Dublin 15 and we wanted to sponser her for it. We donated them €80.00 the night of spring break
We wanted to raise awareness for mental health so we made up posters to stick around the local schools and shops to raise awareness on mental health. we sold the frames for €5, I think we only sold 4 of them. We also made keyrings. Our leaders were happy with our decision and they done everything they can to help us and to give us the information we needed get through any struggles we may have surrounding mental health in the future.
On the 16th April we got together to deciede on a date for the disco we decided on the 1st of May on the 27th of April we made posters with quote on them like Never Give Up, Love, Stay Strong, we made these to stick up the night of the disco, we went and bought vouchers from the Shopping Centre for the best dancer, the happiest person, and the best dressed that was at the disco. Leanne went and got the vouchers because it was easier. On the 1st of May we held the disco in Mulhuddart Community Centre, our plan was to hold it somewhere else but nobody got back to us until the day the disco was on and it was too late then, but it was great, we got a young person Jake Leinster from the area to do the DJ for us. On the night of the disco we made €100.00.
After our disco we sat down and spoke about how well our project was going but Greta had this great idea that we do a video to raise awareness on mental health. On the 11th of May we planned out what will be in the video and what the message was that was going to be put across. On the 14th of May we filmed our video and leaders edited and finaliesed, we agreed for it to be put on to Youtube and Facebook. On the 18th of May we published the video and since then we have got nearly 1000 views, we have made the Irish examiner and the Breaking News.
We went to Jigsaw on the 20th of May to donate the rest of the money we raised for them. We met with Avril and Julieann to donate the money and they were so happy with it. We also donated the frames that we didnt sell.
Raising money for Jigsaw Dublin 15 was a bonus for us, we just set out to raise awareness on mental health.
