Become a Rights Advocate with Our Minds Our Future
Stand up for your human right to better mental health care as a Rights Advocate with Our Minds Our Future
Our Minds Our Future is a campaign led by young people fighting for a mental health system that meets your rights. Make Our Rights Reality trains teams of young people as ‘Rights Advocates’ to know your rights in the mental health system, so you can lead the campaign in your local area. Read on to see how you can join our movement and let us know you’re interested.
Could you be a Rights Advocate?
To become a Rights Advocate, we ask that you are:
- Aged 16-25 – The campaign is designed to give a voice to young adults in the mental health system, so we prioritise training for this age group. If you’re older than 25, we might still be able to offer you the training to join a local team, but we try to make sure anybody leading a local group is a young adult.
- Are committed to giving a few hours a month to the campaign – The role can fit around other commitments like school, uni, work or caring. We have monthly online meetings which are optional (but recommended) and we try to make sure these are at times that suit you. You are likely to also have local meetings and responsibilities as you build up the campaign where you live.
- Able, legally, to work with children and vulnerable adults – One of the things we ask in order to help keep everyone safe, is that all our Rights Advocates have a criminal records check. Please don’t be put off if you have a prior offence that would not affect your ability to join the campaign.
What’s in it for you?
- Training, skills and confidence – As well as our core training, you’ll have access to our online training platform and certificates to say when you’ve completed each step.
- A national community – As a Rights Advocate, you’ll be part of a UK-wide collective of amazing, supportive and inspirational young people who are all fighting for their rights to better mental health care. We have a Facebook group, WhatsApp groups and we meet once a month online, so there’s always space to stay in touch, learn from one another and get inspired!
- Support to build up your local team – If you’re committed to building up support where you live, we’ll work out how we can help you to reach more young people and offer training and coaching to get your local campaign off the ground.
How does it work (in lockdown)?
To become a Rights Advocate:
- Tell us you’re interested – Scroll down to fill out the form with your details so we can let you know about the next round of training.
- Training session 1: An introduction to Our Minds Our Future – This 2-hour online session will let you know the basics of the Our Minds Our Future campaign, our strategy and the Rights Advocate role You’ll also leave that session understanding how we use digital tools to work together as a national collective.
- Training Session 2: My Rights My Mind – what do human rights have to do with mental health? This 2-hour training session will introduce you to the basic principles of human rights and what human rights law says about mental health. You’ll leave this session ready to make the case to friends, family and your local networks to get them on board with the campaign.
- Join the national team – Once you’ve completed your intro training, you complete a bit of (digital) paperwork, sign up to our code of conduct and then you’re ready to join our online spaces.
Once you’re officially a Rights Advocate, you can:
- Use your voice – As a Rights Advocate, you have a platform to raise your voice. Let us know if you want to write a blog, help us on social media, speak at an event or anything else to help make sure young people are being heard. The staff team will always reach out with opportunities to speak with decision-makers, influence decisions in our organisation and anything else that let’s you be heard.
- Build local support – Once we’ve had your criminal records check, we can help you to get more young people involved where you live, through local meetings, events and actions, as well as online.
- Demand change – use your creativity to put pressure on local decision makers. Whether it’s through events, writing letters, petitioning or something else, make sure the people in power in your local area are listening to young voices and meeting your rights.
Right now, we’re working to offer a new cohort of young people the opportunity to train as Rights Advocates in Autumn 2020. Complete the form below to make sure you get first dibs on our next training.
If you have any questions about the role or your ability to join the team, or want to let us know about any access requirements that would help you to get involved, please email morr@youthaccess.org.uk