The IWISA No.1 Community Champions Competition is a way to identify, upskill and reward our nation’s impact makers. And one of their top 10 finalists is Bradley Bailey, from the Kind Heart Bench Project.
Bailey says Social Enterprise Connect is an exciting new community of practice for social entrepreneurs where they regularly have coffee and chat sessions.
“I heard about the competition and decided to enter. I was then shortlisted and then invited to a free workshop,” Bailey says.
According to Bailey, it feels awesome – the fact that what you do makes an impact and that you are recognised for it, is exciting and motivates you to continue.
Bailey adds: “Having had a family member bullied and gone through bouts of anxiety and depression, I wanted to address the issue of bullying, peer pressure and mental health issues at educational institutions, work and in public spaces.
“It’s been an amazing journey thus far.”
“God has His hand on this,” Bailey says.
“The project is not area specific but works with and is linked to various organisations like our partner Hope House Counselling with centres in Table View, Kuils River, Tokai, Khayelitsha and Cape Town.”
And will soon launch a Kind Heart Bench in Goodwood, Bailey says.
Focuses primarily on mental health
“The social innovation project focuses primarily on Mental Health, amid Covid-19 and the ‘new pandemic’ depression, anxiety, amongst others and the effects and impact of bullying – using the bench as a visual aid and methodology of the Kind Heart Bench, the backing and armrests, linking with existing support structures, coming alongside education institutions, public space and society at large,” Bailey says.
Partnering with Hope House Counselling, SADAG and their manufacturing partners Masterdecks and Ticktin Timbers, they facilitate workshops for teachers.
In addition, they also have peer training and -mentoring, kindness and offering training and use art, song and dance to create awareness.
Bailey means “winning this competition would be fantastic as the funds will help towards our project”, and help assist with:
- Enlarging our footprint with more locations and partnerships.
- Creating smart, innovative Wi-Fi enabled designed Kind Heart Benches.
- Access to funding getting into more spaces and venues across the Western Cape and other areas locally and nationally.
- Creating a stand-alone website where the linked stories, links on schools Comms, web pages, their social media pages, projects, and initiatives from the various venues, schools, student bodies, societies, community, etc.
To date, this project has gone into seven other schools, in Goodwood and other areas, two public spaces, been seen on national television, published in two magazines and several newspapers, broadcast on radio stations and has impacted many.
The Kind Heart Bench is a permanent reminder to the public to take a minute out of their day to sit, breathe and talk about their mental health and that of their peers, offering a safe space to connect with others, openly sharing their stories and ideas.
