Proposed (Confirmed!) event: Time to Talk Day Thursday 2nd February 2017

#1

@beth suggested this over on the Inclusion & diversity thread.

This is what Beth said:

Mental health issues can effect anyone- no matter class, gender, ethnicity, age etc so it seems to fit in with inclusion and diversity. It’s a Thursday so I think maybe we could do something in the evening involving high use of the kettle and biscuits and a craft activity? Is Thursday electronics night? @electrotechs could this run together? And maybe the art group could be involved. But I’ve forgotten who is heading that up? Anyway I am happy to plan this (along with anyone else who wants to get involved) in the new year if everyone agrees it’s a good thing. Mainly I see it as an excuse for me to eat more biscuits.

I’m in favour of us being involved with events such as this. It may not be maker related but metal health is something that will likely effect every one of us in some way during our lives. Plus it’s a small thing we can do that that could have a big effect.

I can’t quite work out what the format is, but I imagine plenty of biscuits and facilitating people to open conversations that they perhaps haven’t done before. Making could well play a part in this? Let’s think!

@electrotechs your input would be valuable as this could likely disrupt Electronics Night.

@members what do you think? We need to check that this is something that we as a group broadly agree with before making it an official event.

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A brief introduction
Inclusion and diversity at Makerspace
#2

This is a fantastic idea, if you look at the Mens Shed concept, one of the major driving forces behind that is men’s mental health, and similarly I am sure there are similar issues addressed in U3A for older people and isolation.

It does seem like it might be a big undertaking.

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#3

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/sites/default/files/260%20TTC%20Social%20Contact%20Event%20Toolkit%20v10%20Interactive.pdf

#4

Yes, I couldn’t quite work out if a ‘Time to Talk’ event might be a different and simpler event that ‘Time to Change’.

I only had time to skim the website…

#5

Yes it’s a little confusing.

#6

I have been a volunteer in the area of mental health, and have helped to organize and run regular groups, including evening groups, and it is very hard to get a good attendance in my experience.

As a regular attendee of Electronics Night, I also do not see how this and Electronics Night can operate in concert. If you would like to go ahead with this, and it absolutely has to be on a Thursday, then I would suggest moving Electronics Night to another day to make way for it.

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#7

Hi Andrew, you experience sounds invaluable.

Yes, it’s a national day, so needs to be on that specific Thursday. Being a national day, with a central website with our event guiding local people might make it work better for us. Plus members might want to start conversations themselves?

#8

@Beth asked about the Thursday night, the @electrotechs and Thursday electronics club would like to fully endorse and join in with this superb cause… let us know what we can do and we’re in

Courty

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#9

Fantastic!

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#10

Thinking about attendance, would an acceptable outcome be no non-members attend?

#11

I am wholeheartedly in favour of the space helping this event in whatever way we can.
Thanks @beth for leading.

Just an opinion: if a regular event is in conflict with a special event, it’s nice if the regular one gives way. Thanks electronics people for elegant response.

Kind regards to all,
Jonathan.

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#12

I would say so. I would say it was worthwhile if only 2 people turned up but then perhaps I am biased because it was my suggestion. I think it should be open to all - members and non-members but definately I was thinking of members when I suggested it. Also just to make it clear this is for everyone whether or not they have experience of mental health problems.

#13

Thanks for this, I hadn’t heard of Mens Shed before

#14

@beth sounds like a great idea, thanks for suggesting.

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#15

Fantastic plan @Beth by opening our space to the community is the way this will help us too to share and extend ours @members skills. I am happy to facilitate an art & crafts session for the day.

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#16

Two members? It’s a question of commensurate energies put into it. So if that’s you and one other, and it’s taken nowt more than a punt here, that’s a win. More of a win with lots of members, obviously, but that requires commitment from people to organise and promote.

I’m happy to support any organisers to make promotion materials.

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#17

hey - minor note just to say we try to at-members sparingly. It’s a valuable way of getting the attention of less engaged members, but we don’t want to kid-who-cried-wolf it.

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#18

I really like this proposal. It supports the other current chats about ‘Inclusion’ (there were more terms/words used to explain this but I can’t remember them now) and is part of MakerSpace ethos.

I support this and offer help in any way I can. It’s an important conversation.

#19

Happy to co-facilitate - a matter I am passionate about and an area I have
experiencing working in.

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#20

Yes. In fact I turned off all at-members email notifications a long time ago because the facility was extremely over used, and I was sometimes getting five emails a day.

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