This year’s Mental Health Week theme is ‘Community’ and at Athene we’re proud to do most of our work in sectors key to creating, fostering and maintaining a sense of community – whether it’s schools, non-profits or housing and the built environment. We’re proud too to do so much of this work in our local region, in the communities where we live, work and visit.
So, this Mental Health Week, we’re celebrating some of the projects we’ve been a part of – or that simply inspire us – from in and around our region. And sharing what they can tell us about building community.
Feel Brighter Campaign, NHS Talking Therapies
Community is one of the biggest antidotes to loneliness, and to struggles with mental health. But while young people are increasingly aware of the complexities and nuances of mental health, older generations are not.
Our older communities are far more likely to chalk their mental health issues up to ‘a bad day’ or ‘feeling blue’. While a ‘stiff upper lip’ mentality is admirable, it can serve to diminish what might be real – and treatable – mental health issues.
That’s why we were incredibly proud to support Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (CPICS) in promoting free NHS Talking Therapies for mental health conditions among people aged 65+ in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.
Our Feel Brighter campaign used that same conversational language used by the elderly to resonate and capture their attention – driving them to the Talking Therapies, and taking those first steps out of potential struggle, loneliness and isolation.
Take a look at the campaign to see how we did it.
Engaging communities creatively at Ebbsfleet Garden City
Sometimes building community involves literally building community – creating homes, parks, shops, venues. Doing it right increasingly means doing it sustainably, designing smartly and involving the new and existing community in the process.
In this, garden cities, or villages, offer great examples of how to do it. They seek to balance urban and rural living, giving people affordable housing with connections to green space, local jobs and strong community connections and facilities. The aim is for self-sufficiency and a high quality of life.
We were an early part of Ebbsfleet Garden City, supporting the project in its crucial early consultation phase. But this wasn’t your usual consultation. Knowing the importance of community to the project and to the very principles of garden cities, we went above and beyond to create a consultation that embodied it.
We transformed a local school hall into a ‘Picnic in the Park’ – with trees, benches, entertainment and even a red post box for consultation forms. The events helped draw the community in and get everyone involved, from adults to kids, offering a glimpse of Ebbsfleet’s future – and secured us a CIPR Gold award.
Community management in Oakley Vale
How do you support a sense of community on a growing development – where new phases of homes meet established properties and residents.
That’s something we’ve been doing for several years in Corby, supporting the development of Oakley Vale across the web and social media. And it’s all about fostering a sense of place, connection and pride in the community.
Via the Oakley Vale website, we keep residents up to date on future development plans, but also publish regular content promoting everything from events on in the area, to the heroics of local sports teams, to contributions from the community itself. Elsewhere, a photo competition helps capture the beauty of the development through the seasons, while our social media channels give us a chance to disseminate all of this directly, and gather new content and ideas.
The result is a strong feeling of place and community that residents new and old can not just feel, but be an active part of. In fact, just last year Oakley Vale held its first Oakley Vale Festival!
Read our blog on community management for more on this topic.
Making a difference with Peterborough Positive
Peterborough Positive is a great local community story that has developed over the last couple of years.
We were an early strategic partner in the creation of the Peterborough Business Investment District (or BID), which is known to most as Peterborough Positive. And if you’ve been in and around the city in the last year, you will no doubt have seen some of the improvements and community events that the BID levy has helped fund.
Whether it’s the growing number of murals created by local artists to bring life to vacant shops or iconic streets, watching Glastonbury, Wimbledon or a film on the big screen in Cathedral Square; right down to new planters and initiatives offering business training to city businesses. Peterborough Positive has gone from strength to strength, making tangible changes that create a sense of community in the city.
Find out what the initiative is up to on their great social media channels.
Peterborough Celebrates
Celebrations, fun and festivities are huge part of creating community – and in Peterborough the Peterborough Celebrates festival, led by Nene Park Trust, has become a feature of the city calendar which is entering its fourth year in 2025.
We are proud to have been there at the very start, lending our services pro-bono to help establish the branding and drive the marketing behind the festival’s first iteration which attracted around 20,000 people!
It was an event of true community spirit, with hundreds lending their time and services to make it possible.
And since then, it’s grown and grown to become a cultural celebration of all that makes Peterborough great.
This year’s event will feature a Holi celebration and an East meets West dance performance!
As this week’s Mental Health Week puts the focus on community, we’re proud of the work we’ve done and are doing to help create and foster community – particularly in our region.
If you want to find out what we’re up to today, follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram!
And head to our news page for more insights.