UK: To help raise funds to support the work of Hospitality Action and CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), an industry walking event will take place 10-26 September 2021.
The event is powered by mum, in partnership with Caterer.com, UKHospitality, Umbrella Training, The Caterer, Institute of Hospitality, Tonic Talent, AA Media, EXP101, Sixty-Eight People, HIT Scotland, HRinHospitality, Arena, Hoteliers’ Charter, Catering Scotland and Off to Work.
Participants must pick a distance from 10km to 40km and either walk, run, relay, or more, whilst raising funds. The initiative will kick off on 10 September (World Suicide Prevention Day) and will run until 26 September.
On Saturday 18th September, hosted walks will take place in London, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Craig Prentice, founder of Walk of Calm, said: “I’m excited to bring Walk for Calm back for a second year to promote better mental health across our industry, whilst highlighting and supporting the great work of Hospitality Action and CALM. There has never been a more important time for people to come together in a fun way to increase awareness of wellbeing and positive mental health.”
Mark Lewis is CEO of Hospitality Action, said: “Hospitality Action offers lifelines to people who work or have worked in the hospitality industry and find themselves in difficulty. As you can imagine more people than ever have been in crisis, mostly financial, over the last 14 months.
“We received 20,000 emails asking for help in the first week of the lockdown and we calculate that Hospitality Action has helped approximately 5000 hospitality households since Covid first struck last March. By taking part in Walk for Calm you’ll be keeping active and engaged, taking care of your own mental health as you take care of others.”
Simon Gunning, CEO at the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), said: “We try to help anybody and everybody who finds themselves in crisis, with suicide prevention at our core. We campaign for personal and societal change, and we run a helpline from five to midnight, seven days a week which is free to call and staffed by professionals during lockdown. We took over 130,000 calls and visits to our website over the past year, more than double the previous period, so our services are clearly needed more than ever.”
To donate to the cause and get involved, click here.
Your donations will help Hospitality Action to achieve:
• £25 pays for an hour of telephone support
• £100 pays for interview clothes and shoes following redundancy
• £250 provides emergency grant cover to essential costs, like utilities and food
Fundraising will help CALM to achieve:
• £8 pays for a call on the CALM helpline
• £5,500 pays for one month off helpline support
