WELLINGTON COUNTY- There was no way creators of the Here4Hope campaign were going to let COVID-19 stop them from checking in on their community.
Last month the campaign— which is usually an in-person annual event where the community gathers and connects with one another for the purpose of mental health awareness — got creative and delivered and reached out to each other through postcards to spread positive messages around life and suicide prevention.
The campaign, Messages of Hope printed 46,000 cards that were sent out into the community by placing them in libraries and printing them in the local weekly newspaper for people to colour and mail out.
Messages of Hope also placed 4,000 postcards in elementary schools and high schools in Wellington County, encouraging students to send messages of gratitude to front line workers. Roughly 1,500 of those were mailed out and the feedback, organizers said, was phenomenal.
“We got them back and we sent them to retail locations, to our first responders, to retail locations, to lots and lots of healthcare locations and even some long-term care homes and things like that,” said Cecilia Marie Roberts, suicide prevention project lead for Canadian Mental Health Association of Waterloo-Wellington.
“You can see a number of them on social media who have said thank you or have had them displayed.”
What a great thing to come to work on a Monday morning and find these left for all 5 of our stations!! #messagesforhope Thank you for thinking of us!! pic.twitter.com/WQ5pwapWQQ
— Wellington North Fire Service (@wellnorthfire) November 2, 2020
Thank you to all of our Frontline workers. Our Mustang families appreciate all that you do! @WellingtonCath #Messages4Hope #Blessed #Grateful pic.twitter.com/Ujb15Ca6b8
— StMaryCatholicSchool (@MustangUpdate) October 18, 2020
Our #messages4hope campaign included postcards sent out to schools for kids and youth to write their own messages. These will now be delivered to essential workers in the community. How great are they?! pic.twitter.com/7GXrpyXpwW
— Here4Hope (@CM_Here4Hope) October 27, 2020
She said there was no way of counting how many of the physical cards were actually sent out, but the numbers of their virtual postcards sent with the hashtag #messages4hope surpassed their goal of sharing 10,000 cards.
“Connecting and caring communities are generally more well. They’re well physically and emotionally and of course in times of great distress,” said Roberts.
The initiative was a collaboration between The County of Wellington and CMHAWW.
“We knew that given the lens of COVID-19 that kind of creating the sense of connection and belonging was relevant but it's also relevant because it's a protective factor against suicide,” said Roberts.
The Here4Hope Team even sent messages of hope to Wellington Terrace long-term care home in Fergus through a form of a video so seniors too could be a part of the initiative.
“We could push information out but we wanted to get this engagement for people to do something,” said Roberts so they printed engaging postcards in Wellington Advertiser, pushed ads on social media, and the radio to let the community know that it's there for them.
Roberts said it was important to run this campaign to replace the in-person event that is well attended and looked forward to each year.
"It's one thing for us to be telling everyone in the community about the things that we can do during COVID-19 to stay well but this campaign wanted to do more than that it wanted to facilitate people connecting,” said Roberts.
“It's sort of that yearly check-in with the community.”
