It’s Ok To Talk is an adolescent and youth-focused initiative by Sangath in India that aims to increase awareness about mental health and wellbeing so that more young people are able to engage in a dialogue on mental health, and seek and get help.
This final report for the project explains the goals of the work, the Theory of Change framework and the guiding principles of the team. It also features the learning from the project, the challenges they encountered and some recommendations from the young people who took part for Youth Mental Health Programmes. Find the report online here
The programme works through three key activities: community-based events, training and leadership building and social media campaigns highlighting young people’s lived experiences of mental health needs. Partnerships are at the heart of It’s Ok To Talk’s work and these include collaboration with individuals and organisations that bring complementary expertise on community engagement, arts and social and digital media.
It’s Ok To Talk is rooted in the belief that the arts and new media are powerful catalysts to improve mental health and wellbeing for young people. It is envisioned with the motto that good mental health makes life better for adolescents and young people, and aims to build spaces for dialogue on intersecting issues related to young people’s mental health. Programme activities are conceptualized and designed with young people as active participants, working together to address the stigma and gaps in awareness about mental health and wellbeing, the lack of safe spaces to engage in meaningful dialogue on mental health, and to access mental healthcare information and services.
The first year of the program had focused on delivering activities and content primarily in English (see the Mesh Project Report here). Expansion of activities in the second and third years included a special emphasis on working in Hindi at events and workshops, creating Hindi translated versions of materials and launching a Hindi version of the It’s Ok To Talk website to reach a wider audience.
The programme is supported by the Wellcome Trust and implemented in collaboration with Harvard Medical School.
Click here to go to the It’s Ok to Talk website
Click here to go the Mesh article on the first year
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