Let’s Talk gets people talking
Bell annual initiative gives to mental-health charities based on social media activity
Let’s talk!
That was the prompt from Bell Canada on Jan. 25, promoting Bell Let’s Talk Day, an annual event that has been fostering awareness and fundraising for mental-health initiatives since 2010.
“We’re not done yet,” said Mary Deacon, chair of the Bell Let’s Talk mental-health initiative. “We count all the activity right up until midnight on the West Coast. It’s more than a 24-hour day.”
For every text, call, tweet and Instagram post, Facebook video view and use of Snapchat geofilter, Bell will contribute $0.05 to mentalhealth initiatives.
Deacon said the organization was feeling confident they will exceed last year’s numbers.
As of Wednesday evening, the campaign had reached more than 91,623,313 interactions.
Billing itself as the country’s largest corporate initiative dedicated to mental health, Bell Canada has supported more than 700 organizations since 2011, according to Deacon.
Nearly $2 million of those grants have gone to children and youth programming, $469,000 to Aboriginal communities and $1 million to military family support.
This year, grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 will be allocated to groups who applied for funding.
The final numbers should be announced today.
“It’s more than about the numbers,” Deacon said. “What I am really thrilled about is that Canada is truly leading the way on the conversation about anti-stigma and ways of reaching out for help.”
The campaign took off on Twitter, too, with the hashtag being used by celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and the Royal Family.
The face of the #BellLetsTalk campaign, Olympic speed skating champion Clara Hughes, also took questions on Twitter all day about the campaign and her battle with depression. Her efforts even got praise from the prime minister during the live Twitter event.
“This government is committing $5 billion over the next 10 years for the provinces and territories to really deal with mental health issues,” said Justin Trudeau, after thanking Hughes for her leadership on the issue.
“We need to be a country that’s compassionate and resilient and leaning on each other and understanding that the challenges we face are always better faced down together.”