AJ Gallagher Gives Award £5,000 to Arty-Folks

Arty-Folks was nominated for this award by an AJG employee who benefited from our creative self-development program. During our sessions, she realised that self-expression in a community of peers helped improve her well-being and that such therapeutic opportunities are not available to those in work. Currently Arty-Folks workshops run in the daytime so are not accessible to the majority of people who are in employment.

AJ Gallagher is a global insurance broker with more than 4,500 employees specialising in risk management and insurance solutions for corporate, commercial and personal customers. Gallagher Gives is part of their global Corporate Social Responsibility program and provides opportunities for their employees to get involved in local projects.

People in work are not immune to stress: over a 9 month period Coventry City Council reported 14,000 work days lost through stress, depression and anxiety. With 1 in 6 employees currently experiencing mental health problems, mental health is an essential business concern. There is a strong relationship between levels of staff well-being and motivation and performance and by taking a positive approach to mental health, like
AJ Gallagher, businesses can help their staff grow.

Statutory services focus on people who have become so unwell that they are not able to function in society anymore and we recognise the opportunities to address mental stress at early stages are limited. We all have mental health and we will all experience periods of good and poor mental health, just as we do physical health.

With this award Arty-Folks will be able to pilot a new service that will equip people in employment who are struggling with stress or who care for a loved one or friend with mental health needs with creative techniques to recalibrate mental energies.

We are very grateful to AJG employees at the Coventry branch for allowing us to test our ideas on them during Mental Health Awareness Week May 2018 and for supporting us with a wide range of tasks that will strengthen our charity.