Taking the plunge to raise some money

Something, which I struggle to deal with, is the idea of change. I hate change and would do anything to avoid it yet it is impossible to avoid change. However the certain aspects of your life, which you can control such as your style or your hair colour, are things, which I will never change, or so I thought.

In a bid to raise funds in behalf of Label Jars Not People I have decided I would embrace something which I hate, something I struggle to deal with and something which many people too struggle with, I have decided to embrace change and actively change something which I have control over in my life in the hopes of raising some much needed funds for our charity of the year, Console.

After some thought I have decided to dye my hair. What was originally meant to be my entire head soon went to parts of my hair as in my current situation with work and placement for college it is not practical to arrive with blue hair. So in a bid to follow through with my decision to dye my hair I have decided to dip dye my hair a number of different colours. The simple thoughts of dying my hair pink or blue even just the end scare the hell out of me and has me shivering thinking about it but it is something which I need to do to be able to help others as well as myself.

So the plan for this fundraising is as follows:

• Once we have received ten donations from people through the Label Jars Not People pay pal account I will dye my hair.

• I will dip dye my hair with 3-6 different hair colours such as red, blue, orange, pink, purple etc.

• The process of my hair being dyed will be recorded and uploaded to our Facebook page to encourage others to donate to Label Jars Not People and to make people aware of how challenging something like this is for me.

So while I am scared, nervous, unsure and anxious about doing this I am taking a huge leap out of my comfort zone, I am going to expose myself to something which I have never even thought of before and I am hopefully going to help generate funds for Console through Label Jars Not People.

If you would like to donate please do so through our paypal account by logging onto paypal and make a payment to labelsareforjarsnotpeople@gmail.com

Or contact us directly through Facebook, Twitter or by email.

And most importantly just remember a little goes a long way!!

Siobhán :)

Lending a hand at the Console Walk and Talk.

On Saturday the 14^th of September to mark world suicide prevention day/week Console held a Walkand Talk event in the Phionex Park. As we (are working with Console this year to raise some much needed funds we were on site to lend a hand where needed. As suggested in the name this event was to encourage people to talk as talking is a key element to positive mental health. The walk/ run began at 10 am with many budding walkers and runners lining up at the starting line ready to take on this challenge in order to make a difference, get people talking and raise some much needed funds for Console. With the weather truing out to be dry and sunny people turned up without delay to take advantage of the good weather all the while supporting this amazing cause.

This year from August 2013 to July 2014, our chosen charity is Console: the National charity for suicide prevention. We have chosen this charity as it is such a prominent charity in mental health awareness in this country, and one that we believe is worth helping. Console was set up in 2002 by Paul Kelly a Celbridge local after he experienced the death of his young sister through suicide. Through his loss, Paul recognised a need for a dedicated Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention Service here in Ireland.  Since then Console has developed into a National Organisation supporting people in Suicidal Crisis and those Bereaved by Suicide through Professional Counselling, Support and Helpline Services. 

A great day was had by all. It was nice to be so welcomed by the members of Console who were grateful for the help but we were grateful to be aloud help. We met some familiar faces and met some new faces which was great. It was a nice day and despite a cold and early start it was enjoyed by all members of the Label Jars Not People team in attendance. We would like to thank the members of Console for inviting us to come along and being so friendly and welcoming.

Nicola and Siobhán 

Siobhán, Louise and Nicola with the CEO/Founder of Console Paul Kelly and Console staff member Ciaran.

A trip to KFM

On Thursday Siobhán and Louise had a bit of an early start as we made our way into a local radio station KFM after they asked us to come in for an interview to help get the message across about who we are and what we do. There was a small bit of convincing needed to get Louise to come along for the radio interview but despite her reservations regarding talking on the radio her commitment was clear when she said she would come along.

We had a great time meeting the staff and introducing ourselves and our project. We are grateful for their support as any support we get is much needed to allow our project be a success and raise awareness and promote positive mental health. We would like to say a huge thank you to KFM radio for inviting us along and giving us the chance to share what we are all about, we enjoyed our day and we hope you did too.

Here are some photos taken by Mr Damian Brady from damian's photos who has sponsored our team equipment and is supplying all of our t-shirts to custom order.

Think bigger

This week I got a phone call with what I can only describe as the best news ever. This week I found out that Label Jars Not People were approved for our level 2 think big project, Think Bigger. I was over the moon. I began this project on a spur of the moment to be honest. I had thought about it a lot but I didn’t plan anything I just decided to do it. I applied for think Big in the hopes that I would get accepted but after not hearing from them for a while I decided to go ahead and start my project.What started off as my project has now become a group project. From the very beginning I have a huge amount of support of my friends and I now have formed a team with 8 of my close and trusted friends.

This basically means that for 6 months that Label Jars Not People team are going to have the support of Think Big, a personal mentor to support, advise and guide us along the way, a think big start up pack including a laptop for Label Jars Not People and we also receive some much needed funding which will go along to help us getting know and help us organise some more events!

On saturday the 7th of September myself and two other members of the team will be heading into Dublin to attend a training day with Think Big. From my experience of Last years training day I am excited and restless just thinking about this years one. It is a great day with the chance to meet like minded people, learn new things, get new ideas and build new relationships.

Promoting positive metal health and reducing stigma means a lot to me since I have become ill. Before I became ill I knew nothing about mental health which made everything scarier for me. It made things harder to cope in the beginning until I began to learn more about what was going on and what I was experiencing. I don’t want this to happen to other your people. I want people to know about mental health and talk about issues associated with mental health regardless weather they know someone who is suffering or if they are suffering. People need to know about this because without our mental health what do we have?

The more people talk about mental health the less of a taboo subject it will become and more people will seek help when they need it.  By promoting positive mental health we are reducing the stigma of mental health and we are raising awareness.

Siobhán

2013/2014 Launch with Norah Casey

Today the group all headed out to Dún Laoghaire for a photo shoot to launch the second year of Label Jars Not People. We were delighted that Norah Casey,noted publishing entrepreneur and broadcaster, joined us and was more than happy to support our project as she too does work to promote positive mental health with Walk in My shoes. It was an enjoyable day and a great way to get our new year off to a start. We would like to thank Ms Casey for joining us and supporting our project.

Check out some of the photos below, we struggled a bit when we ere told to have serious faces but we managed somewhat :)

Who are we?

We here at Label Jars Not People are a group of young people dedicated to promoting positive mental health and reducing mental health stigma. Our project was started in July 2012 after a member of our team had experience with time in hospital for a mental illness.  It was after being discharged our team leader, Siobhán realised that something needed to be done about the stigma associated with mental health. She thought about what she had gone through, her time in hospital, her suffering in silence and her feeling alone which was all due to mental health stigma. Siobhán did not want other people to go through what she went through so with a group of friends Siobhán began Label Jars Not People, an organisation to promote positive mental health.What began last year with five people has now grown to a team of ten people who have the support from people such as Norah Casey.

As a group we have been producing t-shirts which aim to promote positivity and all money raised will be going to charities associated with mental health around Ireland. For the year 2013/2014 all money that is raised will be going to the National Suicide prevention charity, Console. Throughout the year we will be selling t-shirts for ten euro with all profits going to Console but we will also be holding events such as comedy nights and family fun days.

The t-shirts that we sell come in a wide range of colours and with a wide range of different designs. They cost ten euro and all of the profits will go to charity. The t-shirts are being produced by a local business man Damian Brady of Damian’s Photos. He has given us a good price to ensure that there is a fair amount of money going to charity from each t-shirt. The t-shirts are of high quality and are printed within ten days of the order being placed depending on the amount required and stock available. Damian has offered his full support and is committed to helping us through this projecting in the hopes that we will promote positive mental health. 

This is our second year of fundraising and we are feeling very positive about it as last year we raised a total of 1000 euro for Aware. This year is going to be bigger and better but we need your help. To support us like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter.

 To purchase a t-shirt please email us @ labelsareforjarsnotpeople@gmail.com