We believe now is a great time to reignite your inspiration and the best way to do this is through live webinars. With the UK’s weekly mobility index increasing by 10% (Posterscope), meaning that people are moving outdoors more, we’re excited to announce that we have two live webinars coming soon to help prepare you for the return to Out of Home!
How to make the most out of Digital Out of Home
June 3rd at 11:00
Learn everything you need to know about Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising. From understanding the benefits of innovative digital formats, to discovering how to increase people’s motivation to act upon your marketing message, you’ll see how digital can grow sales or increase brand awareness.
June 11th at 11:00
We understand that the Education sector is encountering significant media and public attention concerning the safety of pupils and discussions regarding how quickly the sector can bounce back. Hear how the Education sector has continued to reach parents and students using Out of Home advertising and discover how you can use digital advertising to deliver the most important messages to your community.
The Government has launched a plan to tackle loneliness and social isolation during the coronavirus outbreak and period of social distancing.
As part of this plan, national organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections are invited to apply for a share of £5m funding.
The second draft of the CRA’s Reopening Pack is available for download. The pack consists of helpful guidance for when the green light to open up shops begins to shine, and provides some suggestions of things to think about in the meantime.
As the pack is being updated regularly in response to feedback and as government guidance changes, please do send the CRA any comments and feedback.
As you know, we have all been working hard to ensure people who may need a bit of extra help to protect their health and wellbeing during this extended period of lockdown and in response to COVID-19 are able to get it. We are happy to announce the Essex Welfare Service has now been expanded to offer a wider range of specialist support. This now includes caring responsibilities, matters concerning children, young people and families, mental wellbeing, learning disabilities and autism, dementia care, sensory impairments and staying physically active.
We are hoping to further expand the range of services on offer during the upcoming weeks, including a digital directory for information, advice and guidance, and access to support. This will be accessible to the public and practitioners/professionals and we will continue to build the content over the coming weeks and months.
You can download a briefing on this extended offer, what it entails and what it means for you.
Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual campaign which aims to get people talking about their mental health and reduce the stigma around mental illness.
Research from Time to Change found that 9 out 10 people have faced stigma due to mental illness, and this stigma can have a negative impact on recovery time.
For 2020, the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is kindness.
Find Services Near You
The Essex Map is a community asset map which aims to help people to find the groups, services, and activities which work to benefit the community. The website can be used to find guidance and counselling for a variety of mental illnesses, and there are over 130 listings dedicated to emotional and mental health.
Mind in West Essex have built a dedicated online learning platform, designed to help you understand and manage the symptoms of common mental illnesses.
The Mind in West Essex Academy includes a free course on Intro to Anxiety, as well as courses for parents and carers of both young children and teenagers to support their emotional wellbeing.
More courses will be added in the coming weeks, and are due to include topics on working from home, depression, sleep, and stress.
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Mind in West Essex have adapted the services they offer and have created support groups using Zoom.
Sessions are available for stress/anxiety and bereavement, and will consist of a 1-hour session per week for 6 weeks, facilitated by 2 members of Mind in West Essex staff.
Stress/Anxiety Groups:
Tuesdays 10:30-11:30
Thursdays 10:30-11:30
Bereavement Group:
Thursdays 11:00 -12:00
Spaces for these groups are limited. For more information, and to book your place, please call 01371 876641 or email talking@mindinwestessex.org.uk
Accessible Counselling
To help people who are self-isolating and want to talk to someone about their mental health, Mind in West Essex have adapted their counselling sessions so they can be accessed via telephone or video call.
For people with a hearing loss, the systems have been tested to work with a variety of speech-to-text applications including Phonak’s myCall-to-Text phone transcription app.
For those who don’t want to have a formal conversation around their mental health, but are feeling isolated or lonely, Essex Befriends offer a free befriending service facilitated by volunteers.
During the coronavirus outbreak face-to-face befriending has been temporarily stopped, however telephone and email befriending is still available.
Essex Befriends is a cooperative project from Action for Family Carers, Mind in West Essex, Independent Age and Hamelin Trust.
We’ve launched this brilliant course called Essex Resilience* to help everyone try and cope with the added pressure and stress that the Coronavirus outbreak has brought – it will also help you identify some of the symptoms and behaviours that could mean you are being affected in this way.
Using a mixture of Facebook group units and videos that have been developed in conjunction with the Team GB Olympic Rower Jonny Searle MBE, you will also learn how to take small but important steps that could improve your physical health and mental wellbeing, even when you’re juggling working or studying from home and looking after children. You may just be struggling with the ‘new normal,’ and this completely FREE course is backed up with a Facebook group where people can connect, support each other, and exchange ideas.
Visit j.mp/ECAresilience to get started. Everything you need is inside the Facebook group.
*We don’t care if you’re not from Essex – anyone can benefit from it
If you’ve ever tried to recruit volunteers, you’ll be aware that the “feel good factor” often isn’t enough to get as many volunteer applications as you might need.
A number of organisations across Essex are finding that “payment in time” via projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank are a great way to encourage new volunteers to sign up.
What Is It?
With “payment in time” projects reward volunteers by giving them vouchers for each hour they volunteer. These vouchers can then be used for a variety of activities across the county.
How Does It Work?
As an organisation, you register with projects such as Time Credits or Time Bank and then record the number of hours each of your volunteers complete in a given time period (a month, for example).
Your in-house facilitator will then distribute the vouchers to the volunteers, who can spend them directly with the activity of their choice.
What’s the Difference Between Time Credits and Time Bank?
In short, not a lot. Both programs work in a very similar way, but may have different rewards available to volunteers. It’s best to have a look and see what rewards are available in your area before you make your choice.
You may find that some of the rewards are currently unavailable, but volunteers are able to save up their vouchers to spend later or use for an online activity.
On Wednesday 20 May, Media Trust will be running a free webinar in partnership with Twitter called Twitter 101. This session will primarily focus on organic content use (i.e. regular posts on Twitter that you don’t pay for), and will also include time for Q&A.
Media Trust have partnered with Facebook Blueprint to bring you an eLearning Pathway covering the fundamentals of advertising with Facebook and Instagram.
Julie Fosh was appointed the 840th High Sheriff of Essex in April.
She has been unable to undertake any visits to voluntary groups as yet, but is contacting groups each week by telephone to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on their work and to give support and encouragement.
