The Lord Mayor’s Appeal are encouraging employees to digitally share green ribbons to show their support for ending the stigma around mental health in the workplace. 

Through This is Me and the Green Ribbon campaign, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal wants to enable organisations to support their people with their wellbeing. 

The Green Ribbon campaign has been running for four years, and in 2019 the Appeal sold over 170,000 Green Ribbons to companies based from Aberdeen to Cornwall. High profile buildings from the Houses of Parliament to Mansion House, Guildhall to Emirates Stadium, were lit up green to show solidarity. 

This year things are different. The physical community that the Green Ribbon campaign usually builds is not possible due to social distancing, but it is still important that mental health is visible, so The Lord Mayor’s Appeal have created a virtual movement of support.

The green ribbons create a visible movement of supporting for ending the stigma around mental health. They also show those struggling that there is support and they are not alone. The green ribbons also encourage people to share their story to create inclusive workplace cultures. 

The charity has created materials and assets that can help employees and colleagues spread the Green Ribbon message online. They are offering a range of digital assets this year to help raise awareness around mental health. These include origami green ribbons, mindful colouring sheets, social media cover photos, posts, email signatures, and digital signage.

As well as wearing a green ribbon on their profile picture, employees are encouraged able to give one, digitally, to a colleague or employee to share kindness and connect at during these difficult times. The idea is that by sharing a green ribbon anyone can show support and solidarity for positive wellbeing, no matter where they are. 

Employees are also encouraged to share their Green Ribbon profile picture with the hashtag #endthestigma and the location they are in (e.g. #endthestigmaCITY) The hope is that the campaign will spread far and wide, and that going digital will increase its inclusivity, enabling colleagues from all over the country to participate. 

The theme for 2020’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘kindness’ and the Appeal believes that showing support for a colleague is a kind act that anyone can do, and spending time engaging in an activity shows kindness to oneself.