Chalking positive, EC Healthy Communities encourages residents to spread kindness for Mental Health Awareness Month

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -May is Mental Health Awareness Month and what better way to spread the news and positivity than through art! EC Healthy Communities is inviting families, businesses and neighbors to ‘Chalk the Walk’.

The Mental Health Action team is encouraging people to leave positive, encouraging notes on neighborhoods sidewalks. Messages to promote positive mental health.

“You never know what people are dealing with and struggling with and as we saw through the pandemic with our social connections being severed,” says TJ Atkins with the Mental Health Action Team. “It really affected everybody differently in terms of their mental health so that really simple act of even a ‘thank you’...or a simple compliment to someone could really change their life.”

The team is also encouraging participants to share an image of their sidewalk art on social media using the hashtags #HealthyEC, #YouAreNotAlone and #MentalHealthMatters.

If you don’t have any chalk! No worries you can pick up chalk from The Community Table. There is no cost to participate, simply grab some chalk, find a sidewalk and show your support for mental health.

“‘Be kind, you are not alone, have a great day,’ it’s a gamete, you think of what a five-year-old would write as a message on the sidewalk [and] that’s pretty much what you see in terms of messaging,” Atkins laughs. “It’s really just a simple task that anybody can do which is why we really like it because anybody can ‘Chalk the Walk’.”

To learn more about the initiative, returning for a second year, see here.

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