From the Activate Mental Health Archives
Earlier this year, Activate Mental Health turned 10 years old! What started as a modest Meetup group has grown into a lively, dynamic community that has aided hundreds on their path to improved mental health. In this blog post, we delved deeply into our archives to present some memorable moments from our journey.
2016 - Our first "logo" and name
After receiving the crucial endorsement from his psychologist on May 31, 2016, Rahul didn't waste a minute. The very next day, he made the brave leap onto Meetup and established the "Perth Active Depression Support Group." While he later admitted that his haste meant dropping the ball on the branding, even using a photo of Smith's Beach instead of Perth for the first logo, that initial, decisive jump was all it took to transform an idea into a much-needed community.
Thankfully, we met Novie, our graphic designer of choice, gave us a proper logo.
2017 - FYA Young Social Pioneer Program
Our founder Rahul participated in the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) Young Social Pioneer Program in 2017. This national initiative was designed to train and support social enterprises run by 16-to-29-year-olds, culminating in a funding pitch. Notably, Rahul qualified by a margin of only one month before his 30th birthday. The program brought together over 50 selected participants in Sydney and Melbourne for skill development and the chance to secure $10,000 in funding. While Rahul did not win the main prize in his stream, the stream sponsor provided an additional $1,500 grant to assist our group.
2018 - Santa visits our pre Christmas breakfast
A few days before Christmas 2018, we hosted a Christmas breakfast in East Perth. Unexpectedly, Santa paid us a visit, providing some fun photography moments during our breakfast. Santa would also appear at other Activate Meetup's in the future.
2019 - The rebranding of Perth Active Depression Support Group to Activate Mental Health article
While we created the name "Activate Mental Health" and its logos in 2017, with the assistance of Novie Natalie Creative, the actual change didn't occur until 2019. Here is the LinkedIn article announcing our rebranding. During this process, we aimed to expand into the North, Central, and South regions of Perth, but after a few months, we realised this expansion was unsustainable.
2020 - Act-Belong-Commit promotes our COVID social connection initiatives
The COVID period was quite an experience! During the lockdowns, we remained active online since in-person socialising wasn't possible. We engaged in activities like bingo, Jackbox games, Scattergories, Boggle, quiz nights, and haiku writing. Act-Belong-Commit highlighted us at the beginning of this article, showcasing the incredible efforts our volunteers made during this challenging period.
2021 - A year of TED Circles at Evolve WA's office
From 2020 until January 2022, TED, the global initiative that encourages "ideas worth spreading," launched a concept called TED Circles. This was essentially a book club for TED Talks. Each month, TED would introduce a theme, such as "our bodies," "risk-taking," and "appreciating earth," and provide a list of four TED Talks for each theme, along with prompt-starting questions related to each video. The goal was to discuss the video and derive a takeaway message from each discussion.
With the support of Evolve WA, we were able to host these events at their specially designed training and development facility. Unfortunately, TED discontinued the TED Circle concept in February 2022, but since then, two volunteers have continued to organise a monthly TED Talk discussion group at the Victoria Park Community Centre.
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2022 - AMH leadership circle dinner
In 2021, Rahul began the process of turning Activate Mental Health into a registered charity. After joining Volunteering WA that same year, he started recruiting volunteers, beginning with Cyrille. Kayla joined the leadership team later after volunteering in the Silent Book Club format. Emma, a friend from Rahul's earlier involvement with TEDxPerth, also joined the team and eventually became one of the founding directors of Activate Mental Health.
This photo was taken during a team dinner at BOOtoo cafe, a venue commonly used for Silent Book Clubs, walking groups, and board meetings.
2023 - A year of awards and recognition
In 2023, Activate Mental Health received significant attention at four award ceremonies. During National Volunteer Week, Rahul was honoured as WA Volunteer of the Year. The following evening, Activate Mental Health was recognised as Community Champions by the Town of Victoria Park.
We were also finalists in the Community Service Excellence Awards (small organisation category), and finalists for the Most Innovative Support Group award at the ConnectGroups WA (now known as Alike WA) peer support group awards.
2024 - Activate Mental Health becomes a charity!
On the morning of November 5th, 2024, we received confirmation of our endorsement as a registered charity for our cause! Here's the social media post we shared to celebrate this achievement.
2025 - Charity Conversion Volunteer BBQ
Thanks to funding from Neami National and the Think Mental Health campaign, Activate Mental Health hosted a barbeque at the Victoria Park Community Centre to celebrate becoming a registered charity. Our special guest, Mayor Karen Vernon, shared kind words about the impact of our group, especially within the Town of Victoria Park, where many of our events occur.
2026 - 10 year celebration morning tea
To celebrate our 10th birthday, we hosted a morning tea featuring bingo, a quiz about our group, and a game of Jackbox’s Quiplash. The event was well attended and provided a fitting way to mark this important milestone. Read our blog post documenting our impact over the past decade.
What will the next 10 years hold?
We don't know, but if you'd like to see our progress, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Also, consider joining our group on Meetup, so you can attend one of our events.
Here's how else you can support Activate Mental Health
