World Mental Health Day 2026: Lived Experiences Heard – Real Voices, Real Change
09-10-2026
How Fashion-Enter Ltd and Fashion Technology Academy are supporting mental health through education, creativity and community.
World Mental Health Day takes place on 10th October, providing an opportunity to raise awareness, challenge stigma and encourage meaningful action to support mental health and wellbeing. The 2026 theme, “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change,” highlights the importance of listening to people with lived experience of mental health conditions and ensuring their voices help shape the support, services and communities that affect their lives.
At FashionCapital’s sister company – Fashion-Enter Ltd (FEL) and our Fashion Technology Academy (FTA) campuses in London and Leicester, we recognise that mental health and wellbeing are essential to creating positive, inclusive and supportive learning environments. Through investment in staff development, mental health awareness and community-based creative activities, we aim to help learners, staff and the wider community feel supported, valued and connected.
Building a supportive learning environment
A key part of our commitment to mental health is investing in our people. The majority of our tutors and key staff members are Mental Health First Aiders, reflecting our commitment to developing a workforce equipped to recognise when someone may be struggling and respond with understanding, compassion and appropriate support.
By investing in staff development, FEL continues to strengthen the support available to learners, ensuring staff have the knowledge and confidence to promote wellbeing, recognise potential signs of distress and provide appropriate assistance when needed.
Education is about more than developing skills and achieving qualifications. It is also about creating an environment where learners feel comfortable asking for help, talking about challenges and knowing they will be treated with dignity and respect.
Mental health awareness helps foster a culture in which conversations about wellbeing are welcomed rather than avoided. While Mental Health First Aiders do not replace professional mental health services, they can provide an important first point of support and help individuals access further assistance when appropriate.
(Community repair workshop at FC Designer Collective shop in North London)
Creativity as a pathway to wellbeing
Our commitment to wellbeing extends beyond the classroom through community projects, such as Hope-FX for young adults, that encourages individuals to engage in creative activities, including stitching, clothing repair, upcycling and other textile-based crafts.
At Fashion-Enter Ltd, we see creativity as more than a practical skill or a route into the fashion industry. It can also provide an opportunity to slow down, focus on the present moment, express feelings and connect with others in a welcoming environment.
Activities such as stitching, embellishing and repairing garments offer achievable, hands-on tasks that encourage concentration and a sense of accomplishment. For some participants, these activities can provide a calming break from everyday pressures; for others, they offer an opportunity to learn something new, rediscover a skill or build confidence through making something with their own hands.
Creative activities may support mental wellbeing in several ways:
- Reducing stress: Focusing on a repetitive, practical task can offer a welcome pause from daily worries and pressures.
- Supporting emotional expression: Creative work can provide an alternative way to explore feelings and experiences that may be difficult to put into words.
- Encouraging mindfulness: Paying attention to stitches, textures, patterns and the process of making can help people focus on the present moment.
- Building confidence and resilience: Completing a project, learning a technique or repairing an item can create a sense of achievement and encourage problem-solving.
- Strengthening social connections: Shared craft activities create opportunities for conversation, mutual encouragement and friendship, helping people feel part of a community.
These benefits will differ from person to person, and creative activities are not a substitute for professional mental health care. However, they can form a valuable part of a wider approach to wellbeing by offering opportunities for connection, self-expression and positive engagement.
(Hope-FX project with FEL)
Bringing people together through community projects
Community engagement is central to our approach. By creating opportunities for people to come together through textiles we help make practical creative activities more accessible while encouraging social interaction and shared learning.
A community stitching or repair session can be about much more than the item being made or mended. It can provide space to talk, share experiences, learn from one another and develop a sense of belonging. Participants can contribute at their own pace, whether they are experienced makers or trying a craft for the first time.
These shared experiences reflect an important aspect of the 2026 World Mental Health Day theme: recognising the value of individual experiences and creating environments in which people feel able to participate, contribute and be heard.
The fashion and textiles sector has a natural role to play in this work. Skills such as repairing, reusing and creating textiles bring people together around a shared purpose, connecting practical learning with community participation and personal development.
Listening to lived experience and turning it into action
The message behind “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change” is that listening must lead to meaningful action. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasises that people with lived experience of mental health conditions should be involved in shaping the policies, programmes and services that affect them.
For organisations such as Fashion-Enter Ltd and Fashion Technology Academy, this principle is a reminder to keep listening to learners, staff, tutors and community participants, recognising that everyone’s circumstances and support needs may be different.
Creating opportunities for people to share feedback, express concerns and contribute ideas can help us understand what makes our learning environments and community projects more welcoming and supportive. Meaningful engagement also means taking those contributions seriously and considering how they can inform future activities and approaches.
The WHO’s wider work on community-based mental health support also highlights the importance of person-centred, rights-based approaches that respect people’s dignity, choices and individual needs.
By combining mental health awareness, staff development, creative engagement and a willingness to listen, we can continue working towards environments where wellbeing is part of everyday practice rather than an issue addressed only when difficulties arise.
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