PHA launch first ever Talkathon

Since Autumn 2021, The PHA Group has been working closely with this year’s Charity of the Year partners, CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). Along the way we’ve learned just how passionate CALM are to provoke conversations and help people feel empowered to speak up when necessary. As an agency we were keen to replicate this and to support their mission, and so in aid of the charity, we launched our own PHA 24-hour Talkathon – a period of 24 hours where employees were encouraged to discuss topics that need more conversations and deserve greater awareness.

Taking place over three days, employees could choose from 15 different sessions led by external speakers and our own colleagues. These included important and sensitive topics such as ‘Sexual Identity’, ‘Racism & Unconscious Bias’, ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Spotting the Signs of Suicide’. In addition to that, we wanted to provide an opportunity for employees to express themselves in other, more creative ways with plenty of practical activities also on offer throughout the 24-hours from sign language, terrarium building, calligraphy and even puppy yoga!

Employees shared some extremely moving and inspiring stories, we had over 200 participants in total for all sessions across the three days – as staff were able to join more than one session. Everyone across the agency really enjoyed the week, with one employee even calling it ‘barrier-breaking’, epitomising how the Talkathon brought staff together to help replicate what CALM strive to achieve in provoking conversation.

Most importantly, we raised an extraordinary amount of money for our Charity of the Year partners. In total, £1,037 was donated, rising to a remarkable £2,074 due to the company very generously matching our total donation. As an agency, we’re incredibly proud that the result of this can amount to over 250 lifesaving calls to those in need.

This takes our tally up to almost £4,000 since our collaboration with CALM started. Following on from the Talkathon, we are exploring plans to help raise awareness and fundraise for our partner even further.

Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is PHA’s Charity of the Year. To find out more about what they do, please visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/