Blog For Mental Health 2015

Due to my health, I will no longer be able to curate this site. If Blog For Mental Health has served its true purpose, you don’t need me here anymore anyway. The 2015 Blogroll is up-to-date as of this writing, and you can use the wonderful community of bloggers listed there to make connections, and to find kindred spirits dealing with similar challenges. That’s always been the most important role of Blog For Mental Health, to connect individuals in a positive way to support one another.

Show of hands, how many had given me and Blog For Mental Health 2015 up for lost? Be honest now, I can’t see your hands from here! 😉

Well, whether you had or had not (and don’t feel badly if you had, I honestly had moments when I wondered myself), I’m happy to end the suspense for you right now by officially launching. . .

Blog For Mental Health 2015 badge by Piper Macenzie

A Very Short History Of BFMH:  In 2012, my A Canvas Of The Minds co-founder and dear friend Lulu had a spectacular idea.

I found myself interested in an official blogging project to raise awareness for mental health education. I sifted through Google for awhile, unable to find anything like it. And I thought, “Why don’t I start one?” It would be easy! All I would need to do is produce a graphic and some instructions.

Being a woman of action, Lulu did just that.  In 2013 she allowed me to launch the project through Canvas, and last year this very site you’re visiting now, The Official Blog For Mental Health Project, was developed to handle the campaign as a venture all its own.

The purpose of Blog For Mental Health is to share our stories, educate, eradicate stigma, let those suffering know they are not alone, raise our voices, dispel misconceptions. . .  You know, just your average change-the-world-with-our-words kind of thing.

So How Do I Become A Part Of Blog For Mental Health 2015?

First, all you must do is write a post.  It’s that simple. The post should include the following four items:

1.  The BFMH pledge, the words Lulu kicked this gig off with three years ago:

“I pledge my commitment to the Blog for Mental Health 2015 Project. I will blog about mental health topics not only for myself, but for others. By displaying this badge, I show my pride, dedication, and acceptance for mental health. I use this to promote mental health education in the struggle to erase stigma.”

2.  The 2015 BFMH badge, pictured above.  You can put it in the post, on the sidebar, both, whatever you like.  The purpose of the graphic is to catch the attention of your site’s visitors and hopefully get them interested in participating, or at least spreading the word about the campaign.  Which brings me to. . .

3.  Please include a link to this post, or at least a link to the site (blogformentalhealth.com) in your pledge post!  This matters.  The whole idea is to raise awareness, that being the case, your readers need to be able to investigate BFMH further on their own, should they be interested.  The easiest was for them to do this is a source link!

4.  Please include in your post as little or as much as you would like about your experiences with mental health. This can be your own story, the impact of a loved one’s struggles, perhaps something you read or saw that really woke you up to the importance of addressing mental health.  Anything that has truly impacted you matters.  Essentially, we want to know what has drawn you to become a part of the Blog For Mental Health campaign.

There is no requisite number of posts you need to make in the year to “qualify”.  As many of your words and as much of your time as you can contribute, it’s enough.  A little can go a very long way in the fight to raise awareness, educate, show support, and eradicate stigma.

Once you have written your post:  Email the link to your specific Blog For Mental Health pledge post  to blogformentalhealth@gmail.com (just a link to your site itself is not what I need).  I am the only one with access to the account, in case you have privacy concerns.

If you have general questions, read through our Frequently Asked Questions page before emailing me privately — unless of course your question is of a private nature.  If you ask your question in the comments of that page, others may benefit.  As stated above, all emails are held in strictest confidence, no one sees them but me.

Once you have published your pledge post, and emailed me the link, I’ll get you listed on the Blog For Mental Health 2015 Official Blogroll, both on this site and on Canvas.  I’ll also share your voice through our social media channels, and excerpts of your posts through this site.

If you like, include social media you are on (your Twitter handle, the URL of a facebook page for your blog [not your personal account], a link to your Google+ profile) that you would like connected with your post, if any.

You are invited to email additional links to future Blog For Mental Health posts you write throughout the year.  I’ll share these out during the year, though only your initial pledge post will be listed on the Blogroll.  There simply isn’t room to list all pieces there!

Two important disqualifiers:  I will not share posts that are abusive or malevolent (please click here for clarification).  That one shouldn’t have to be stated, but I discovered last year that in fact it did.

Also, there has been enormous growth in the number of spam and ad sites recently.  While I want awareness, I reserve the right to challenge and/or refuse any piece I suspect of being fraudulent or from a site primarily for monetary gain.  This includes individuals who may be self-employed and devote a great portion of their site to promoting paid services. When in doubt, ask: I only disallowed one site out of 268 for this reason last year! 😉

Thanks, as always, for your patience, attention, and faith in this project.  Also for your belief that I’m actually going to get this ship out to sea.  That means the world and then some to me. ♥

♦

Show the world our strength, show them our solidarity, show them what we are made of.  Take the Blog for Mental Health pledge and proudly display the badge on your blog!

♦

Further Blog For Mental Health Info:
Frequently Asked Questions
Take The Pledge
About Blog For Mental Health
Handy Links
Blog For Mental Health 2015 Official Blogroll

(Some pages and posts may be temporarily down while I update information.)

© Ruby Tuesday and The Official Blog For Mental Health Project 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and The Official Blog For Mental Health Project with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Take The Blog For Mental Health 2014 Pledge!

To take the Blog For Mental Health 2014 pledge, have your post added to the Blog For Mental Health 2014 Blogroll (both on this site and A Canvas Of The Minds), as well as having it shared through our social media channels, you need only to follow the easy steps outlined here.

Welcome To The Official Blog For Mental Health Project!

Welcome!

Coming in to the launch of Blog For Mental Health 2014, I thought I was prepared.  I’d made some important changes to the way the campaign was set up, and I was sure those changes would remove any confusion, making this year both more inclusive and easier for me to stage.

As it turns out, I was right.  I was also utterly unprepared for the response Blog For Mental Health 2014 has generated.  As of this writing, we already have more than 60 confirmed pledges, and that number grows daily.  That may not stagger you, but in the whole of last year’s campaign, we received a sum total of 116 pledges.  In 11 days, Blog For Mental Health 2014 has received more than half of the total for pledge posts in the entire 2013 campaign!

This is something which flabbergasts me, which delights me, which fills me with hope and joy.  Additionally, many bloggers have expressed a desire to share and send along more than just one initial pledge post.  They want to share their stories ongoing throughout the coming year.  And I very much want to be able to help them to do so.

I found myself thrown for a bit of a loop on how to handle this, though.  You see, it is still of the utmost importance to me that A Canvas Of The Minds, the site through which Blog For Mental Health was being coordinated, remains A Canvas Of The Minds — with its primary focus of sharing the amazing words of the incredible people who author there.

I didn’t stay thrown very long.  Before I even knew what I was doing, I created another blog entirely to showcase that which has become so important to so many people, myself included: this site you are now so graciously visiting, The Official Blog For Mental Health Project.

I also created a facebook page, a Twitter account, and a Google+ profile.  I really need to get myself a hobby.  😉

The general plan of action is this.  Because The Official Blog For Mental Health Project is so new, and has no follower base as yet (not-so-subtle hint that you should all follow it and share it around), the Blog For Mental Health 2014 Official Blogroll will be maintained both here and on Canvas.  In addition, initial pledge posts from bloggers will be shared out both through regular Canvas social media, as well as the new BFMH Project social media channels.

Subsequent Blog For Mental Health posts I receive throughout 2014 will be shared through this blog itself, as well as its social media.  Canvas and its social media will then be able to keep focused on the wonderful content readers have come to expect from the amazing authors there.

I know this is probably going to be confusing to quite a few of you, and there most certainly will be some adjustments along the way as I learn what works and what does not.  It’s happened so rapidly that even the design for this site isn’t finalized — I mean aesthetically.  I would really love to have presented it to you looking dressed up and beautiful as it will ultimately be, but right now the content is here, pages which I put together carefully, thoughtfully, and also with the utmost urgency.  I think it’s a good beginning.

I think only one more thing is very important to touch on now.  This is as new for me as it is for all of you.  While I’ve no doubt there will be a learning curve, I know that together we will make the BFMH Project work in all the best ways “to promote mental health education in the struggle to erase stigma,” just as the pledge states.

So have a look around the site, read what I have put together in its pages, let me know what you think!

Love to all of you,
Ruby

© Ruby Tuesday and The Official Blog For Mental Health Project 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and The Official Blog For Mental Health Project with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.