Celebrate good mental Health

Our aims

The overall aims are to work with people with mental health issues, the lonely and people who are isolated. within the community. We seek to enhance well-being through creativity. We run many creative projects, such as singing, writing, podcasting, performance skills and presentations. The members have produced six booklets which contain writing and photographs all written and taken by people who come to our community groups. This helps our members gain confidence and a sense of well-being. This helps to destigmatize mental illness by entertaining and educating the audience and readers. The participants gain empathy, pride and self-worth. All the people who come to our groups have some kind of mental health issue and often find it difficult to express themselves in a creative way; we support them to find their voice and encourage personal development through creative endeavours. It is also a way of demystifying the stigma which often surrounds mental illness. This can in some cases stop people getting help, stepping stone theatre helps rid that stigma and encourages people to speak in their own words.

How do we achieve these aims

We achieve our aims of gaining inclusion and stamping out stigma – by the creative process. This is very cathartic. As we create our theatre shows our members have to examine their own lives and their coping mechanisms. They then turn this into testimonial performances. We destigmize mental illness by sharing our stories. Both our members and our audience learn about mental illness, how to alleviate symptoms and how to deal with someone who is not OK.

 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players' 

William Shakespeare