About Mind and Time to Change
We are Time to Change – an England-wide social movement which aims to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems.
Time to Change is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, with £20m funding from the Department of Health, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund between 2016 and 2021.
Since the campaign started in 2007 there has been a step change in the way mental health is viewed and talked about in England with 4.1 million people having improved attitudes towards those of us with mental health problems.
There’s now a powerful, confident social movement with more than 7000 registered Time to Change Champions (people with their own direct lived experience) and hundreds of thousands of campaign supporters. Hundreds of schools and employers are addressing mental health amongst students and workforces, and Time to Talk Day (first Thursday in February) has sparked millions of conversations each year.
As a result of our impact and evidence base, other anti-stigma campaigns now look to us as a leader in changing public attitudes and behaviour.
But there is still so much more to do. Our ambition is to secure irreversible social change and the 2016-21 programme will take us closer to this goal.
We have ambitious aims to change attitudes and behaviour, empower individuals to challenge stigma, and reduce the mental health discrimination people face in key areas of their lives. At this critical stage in social change, a key goal is to cut through to audiences that have not yet engaged, including an increased focus on men.
We are working with communities and are in the process of setting up local hubs in three tranches that will lead and embed anti-stigma work locally; build the movement of individual Champions, employers and schools; and continue our successful work with young people and parents. Mind aims to ensure that the needs and interests of mental health service users, women, black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and people of all ages are reflected in all its activities. All this work will take us closer towards our vision of a society where talking about mental health has become every day and ordinary, and no one needs to face or fear judgement or discrimination because of a mental health problem.
The Community Leadership Project
The Community Leadership project, a pivotal project in phase 3 of Time to Change,builds on the achievements of the Social Leadership and Social Contact projects in phase 2 and 2015/16. The project’s role is two-fold: to support and equip people with lived experience to be effective champions, and leaders of the Time to Change social movement; and to work with partner organisations to embed Time to Change’s mission, approaches and mechanisms for change at a local level through our nation Hubs Network across England.
Lived experience leadership and social contact are at the heart of the Community Leadership project, and as part of the team you will have responsibility to ensure these fundamental elements are embedded within local Time to Change movements as well as the wider Time to Change programme.