A group of students from Resilient Ararat’s cluster schools have come up with a creative way to mark Mental Health Month 2023, encouraging the local community to, quite literally, grow happiness.

Resilient Ararat’s Grow Happiness campaign launches today, and will provide participating schools and businesses with seeded cards they can plant at home.

The four card designs are each embedded with a different variety of plant seed and feature questions that aim to spark community conversation around positive mental health.

Central Grampians LLEN Executive Officer, Jane Moriarty, said her organisation had been working with the students to plan, design and implement this year’s campaign.

“The idea for Grow Happiness came directly from a workshop we held with an amazing bunch of students from Resilient Ararat’s cluster schools. The students had a brainstorming session to come up with different ways they could bring happiness to the community and encourage open conversations around mental health, and this was the idea they all loved,” Ms Moriarty said.

“Central Grampians LLEN staff helped the students bring the concept to life by researching seed paper suppliers and designing options for logos, branding and campaign materials. All of these were voted on by the students who had the final say on the campaign.

“We are so proud of what they’ve come up with and we are really encouraging the community to support the Grow Happiness initiative.”

Community members who receive Grow Happiness cards are being asked to share their answers to the questions on Facebook or Instagram and tag @resilientararat. They can then plant the card in a pot or garden by following the instructions on the back.

“The idea is to watch the online conversations, and your new plants, grow throughout the month of October,” Ms Moriarty said.

For more information on the Grow Happiness campaign, follow Resilient Ararat on Facebook and Instagram. 

For further information please contact:
Jessie Newton on 03 5352 3266 or email media@cgllen.org.au.

PHOTO: Ararat West Primary School students, Milla, Sophie and Harvey are encouraging the community to support Grow Happiness, a campaign they helped to create as part of a Resilient Ararat workshop.