JACKSON, WY— Mental health is still a hard thing to talk about. Leadership Jackson Hole wants to change that.
Their new campaign, “Here For You JH,” is designed to de-stigmatize mental health in the community by inviting and encouraging open conversation about it.
“Mental health is a challenging topic to talk about,” said local artist Cal Brackin. “Our language doesn’t cater to it very well like it does with topics of love and happiness.”
Brackin is the creative lead for the project as part of his involvement with Leadership JH. His job is quite literally to illustrate locals in the community “to highlight our community and the fact that everyone, at some point in their life, is challenged by a mental health issue,” Brackin said. The idea is the more visible and in-the-open mental health is, the less scary it will feel to talk about it.
You may have seen some of his illustrations in the window at Hand Fired Pizza. Those are only a sneak peak of what’s to come, but Leadership Jackson Hole is the next beneficiary of Hand Fire Pizza’s “Community Night.” Tuesday, April 3 from 5-9 p.m, a “slice” of the revenue (Brackin’s pun) will go toward supporting the #HereForYouJH campaign.
Throughout the month of May, Leadership JH hopes to paint more storefront windows and increase visibility. They also hope to spread their art on coasters, stickers, posters, coffee sleeves, and anything else that makes it easy to interact with. But another large component of the campaign is to connect people to local mental health resources. Just one phone call can connect individuals in need to one of a handful of community organizations: Community Safety Network, Curran Seeley Foundation, the Good Samaritan Mission, JH Community Counseling Center, One 22, Senior Care of JH, Teton Youth & Family Services, residential treatment facilities and private-practice mental health counselors.
The campaign will run through the end of May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. Brackin encourages people to share their stories “to have an open dialogue with our community and to normalize what we all go through.”
“We hope to gather more stories, share and put out more pictures to reduce the stigma and show that as a community, we are here to speak, listen and support each other,” Brackin said.
Where: Hand Fire Pizza
