National mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma has won the Mental Health and Wellbeing Award at the 2022 Impact Awards for its Hub of Hope app.
The Digital Leaders Impact Awards celebrate technological innovations that improve people’s lives and the world around us. The sixth annual awards took place at London’s Ministry of Sound and awarded the latest champions of Tech for Good across the UK.
World-leading domain name registry company, Nominet entered Chasing the Stigma for the award, for its Hub of Hope app. This was established in 2017 by, Chasing the Stigma, a charity set up by Liverpool comedian and CEO, Jake Mills, following his own suicide attempt in October 2013.
Jake realised when talking through his own personal experience that many people didn’t know where to turn for help with their own mental health issues, so he and his team created the Hub of Hope – an app to bring together all of the mental health support available to someone in any given area.
The Hub of Hope is the only service of its kind that brings NHS, Samaritans, Mind and 3,500+ registered national and local voluntary, grassroots, private and third sector mental health support services together in one place, with the number listed growing daily. People can search for mental health support via their postcode or by concern and all the local support in their area will come up -just like Deliveroo.
To date it has directed more than 200,000 people to life changing and even life-saving help. The site has proved particularly popular amongst men aged 25-54, who are often cited as being most likely to die by suicide.
The Hub of Hope has also been included in the Government’s Covid-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing Recovery Action plan, and on https://www.nhs.uk/
The Hub of Hope can be accessed through the app, which can be downloaded from the App Store (iPhone) or Play Store (Android), via the Chasing the Stigma website or www.hubofhope.co.uk. The Hub of Hope also has a ‘Need Help Now?’ button that connects users directly to Samaritans or Crisis Text Line’s messaging service.
Jake Mills, CEO and founder of Chasing the Stigma, commented:
“We are extremely thankful to Nominet for entering us into these awards. It is so great that the app has been recognised for tech for good work, as that is exactly why it was created – to get people the mental health help they need as quickly as possible. The Hub of Hope is free to download and free to use and we just want to make sure as many people know about it and download the app, as we all have mental health and need to look after it just like we do our physical help.”
The Impact Awards were open to any UK-operating business, government department or non-profit using digital products or services for positive social impact. The 39 finalists were chosen out of 500 nominees from across the UK who are leading the way in digital transformation in all sectors.