Public Engagement

Public engagement is the heart of fostering a compassionate and informed community that champions mental health awareness. At Sangath, we believe that involving the public in our mission is paramount to breaking down barriers, reducing stigma, and nurturing empathy. By engaging individuals, and communities, we foster a powerful alliance for positive transformation, promoting mutual learning, skill development, fresh perspectives, enhanced research, elevated aspirations, and boundless inspiration.

Our public engagement initiatives support the implementation of our evidence-based practices at scale and conduct activities that help our programmes to spread awareness and engage with potential beneficiaries and the public. Through our public engagement efforts, we prominently address anxiety, depression, and suicide prevention in youth across India.

OUR STRATEGY

SELF-DISCLOSURE

Stories, combined with the right information, have the power to build empathy and solidarity. We highlight stories of people with lived experiences via various mediums with the aim to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

ONLINE CAMPAIGNS

We leverage the power of digital tools to reach and engage with a wider audience and invigorate conversations and actions around mental health. Our programmes led in partnerships with Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat have enabled us to share our knowledge and resources with a much larger group in a short time.

Public events and workshops

We organise interactive workshops that aim to spread awareness, share knowledge, and coping strategies for commonly experienced mental health challenges. These workshops foster open dialogue, providing a safe space for sharing experiences and learning from each other. We partner with other organisations, healthcare professionals, mental health advocates, and educational institutes to host collaborative events that promote holistic well-being.

Leadership training and resources

Our constant endeavor is to empower the next generation with mental health leadership, advocacy and healthcare tools and skills. The youth focused training modules and multi-media resources are developed after intense research and data-driven evaluations.

7500

7500 podcast listeners and 7350 event attendees

750

young people trained on mental health leadership, advocacy, suicide preventio

4.7 million

Reached 4.7 million users on social media and website

676

youth advisors, artists, lived experience contributors, and volunteers engaged with us

"I felt that someone was seriously listening to me."

I felt that someone was seriously listening to me. This gave me confidence that my story is important to tell others.

Kehkasha, It’s Ok To Talk youth contributor

"Sangath’s It’s Ok To Talk initiative is one of Instagram’s first mental health partners in India"

Sangath’s It’s Ok To Talk initiative is one of Instagram’s first mental health partners in India, and instrumental in bringing Instagram into key conversations around youth and well-being. They lend an informed and inclusive perspective in the development of our products, policies and consumer facing resources that address well-being. Their interventions destigmatize discussions around mental health, enabling a safe space for expression on our platform.

Tara Bedi, Public Policy and Community Outreach, Instagram, India

"I have worked with It's Ok To Talk over many years and have always found it to be an extremely open"

I have worked with It’s Ok To Talk over many years and have always found it to be an extremely open and accommodating space, one that trusts the people it works with. We premiered a theatre piece revolving around concerns of mental health and as a platform that was creating space for dialogue through a creative process.

Mallika Taneja, Theatre Artist, India

KEY PROJECTS

Outlive

Suicide is the single leading cause of death in young people aged 15-29 in India. Suicide is the result of a unique interaction of different social, economic, cultural, and health-related factors which causes distress to individuals in their specific contexts.