(In collaborations with Artist, Annette Yeo of @apaperhope)
My name is Annette and I founded @apaperhope in 2016 when I started my calligraphy and painting journey.
My history with ThriveSg goes way back to its initial inception. My first project with ThriveSg was actually a painting for their counselling room while they were still undergoing renovation during 2020, the year of the Pandemic! Pamela Koh, the founder of ThriveSg, engaged me to create an art piece for their Thrive counselling room.
The heart behind the painting was the idea that all the pain and suffering that we’ve gone through in our lives, through counselling, can be planted and grown into beautiful things - this pain will turn into joy. It was my hope for each and every one of ThriveSg’s future clients. It also touched me to find out that the words I have chosen for this piece of artwork turned out to be from a bible verse that means a lot personally to Pamela herself.
A year later, ThriveSg and I collaborated again on a series of five postcards for a Christmas giveaway to bless the ThriveSg Tribe and as a part of #lookingoutreachingout mental health campaign. The heart of the campaign is to encourage a culture of looking out for and reaching out to one another to cultivate a support-seeking in the community.
And just this past year in October 2022, we collaborated again on 2 posts from the Inner Child series of original characters to express and signify different inner child parts that we have inside of us. Each inner child was created with personalities linked to plants that have similar traits! Check out @thrivesg.tribe to learn more about how connecting and healing our inner child parts is a way to heal from our childhood traumas.
Collaborating with ThriveSg was a no-brainer for me since the beginning.
I believe deeply the importance of having help with our mental health as a society as well as spreading awareness and education as a form of normalising (aka moving away from mental health stigmas in order to seek help), making sense of pain and understanding who we are as part of the human experience. I have seen how counselling and receiving help have benefited friends and myself, and I had jumped at the chance to be able to be a part, even a little, of contributing to building this community of Thrivers.
If you have learnt something new through the content here, then I would say, we have succeeded. Thank you for being here :)
Pamela and I now have a deep friendship beyond the work that we have done together. She is someone who cares genuinely and will go out of her way to show love and grace to the people around her.
One of the most refreshing things about her is how much she believes that my art could be used to reach people and speak to people. And that translated into getting connected with people that came through ThriveSg who have been impacted by my paintings! Seeing how they related with my art and being a part of their journey was invaluable to me.
Creating things together, other than giving me visibility, also reminds me that when we work together for a common cause, there is a harmony in collaboration and not competition. When we pull our resources together, it makes things better and creates bigger changes that we hope to see in the world.
If you’re still hesitating on whether or not to volunteer or collaborate with ThriveSg, I strongly encourage you to give it a go!
The working relationships here are seasoned with salt and filled with grace, there is freedom in the form of expression, you get to contribute to bringing greater awareness to mental health, there’s no losing in this! Everyone wins!
If you are a Creative and interested to collaborate with ThriveSg for a good mental health cause, please check out cru.sg/thrivesg-CCMH and submit your collaboration request to us.
If you are available to volunteer with us for a good cause for at least 3 months to a year, do check out the 5 benefits we offer our Creatives Volunteer Program and apply at cru.sg/thrivesg-CVP !
We look forward to join us in our #creativesformentalhealth initiative.
ThriveSg believes that the ARTS have the power to impact mental health and how the creative process can be used for a good cause!
#creativesformentalhealth is ThriveSg’s way of championing and inspiring the use of creative giftings for a good cause, whether it be for mental health or not!
ThriveSg has been so blessed by Creatives that have collaborated with us in our mental health cause and we would like to shout out to some of them, we hope you’ll be inspired & encouraged by their stories to use your creative giftings for a good cause too.
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Read inspiring stories from courageous individuals in Singapore about how they've overcome challenges and experienced healing in their lives.
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ThriveSg serves young people (17-25) from all walks of life and of different faiths. We believe that everyone has the capacity to thrive significantly when empowered and supported through growing in self-discovery, emotional wellness and resilience, and mental health.
ThriveSg champions a help-seeking culture through advocating a growth perspective towards counselling, to overcome the stigma of mental illnesses and emotional challenges.
Follow ThriveSg on Instagram HERE or click on the button below to find out more.
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