The global population of men and women is nearly equal and this month, we focus on the health and wellness of men, boys, and their families with International Men’s Health Week (#menshealthweek) from 13 to 19 June. It’s a week dedicated to raising awareness on a global scale of the health issues that affect men, like early detection of preventable health problems.
Here, we feature five organisations that strive to provide better health and wellness services for men. Plus, we include our top tips from these charities to help raise awareness for your own important cause.
The Movember Foundation: Ride with your Community, Every Year
Around the world, men die on average five years earlier than women, for reasons that are largely preventable. The Movember Foundation believes these stats must change, and in 2003, the campaign took shape with 30 pioneering “Mo Bros”. Today, more than 6 million Mo Bros and Mo Sisters have joined the growing campaign.
To improve health prospects for men, Movember funds groundbreaking projects around the world—notably, it engages people where they are to understand what works best and accelerate change at both a local and broad scale. As a result, the Movember Foundation is raising awareness and improving outcomes for a range of issues, including mental health, testicular cancer, and prostate cancer.
- A Top Tip from Movember: Foster a growing community, every year. Annual campaigns are effective because they grow over time, while also responding to changing landscapes and evolving issues of the day. For example, Movember continues to host its iconic “grow a moustache” campaign, but it’s also collaborated in other exciting ways, like being tapped as the official charity partner of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (launched in 2012). The motorcycle ride connects a global community in over 1,000 cities, which creates a high profile community-based event that raises money for a number of important programmes.
Orchid: Leverage Key Moments and Dates
Founded in 1996, Orchid’s goal is to save men’s lives from testicular, prostate, and penile cancers through research and awareness. The charity also offers a range of support services for men and their families, including a helpline staffed by specialists, resources for young people, and even a series of films.
- A Top Tip from Orchid: Leverage awareness days to your benefit. Why reinvent the wheel to duplicate the efforts of other hard working organisations? For example, Orchid’s Make Strides for Men event happens immediately following Men’s Health Week, which gives the charity a key opportunity to promote the campaign widely and with maximum exposure and impact. What awareness days or weeks could your charity leverage? (Here’s a helpful list of international awareness days!)
Prostate Cancer UK: Find your Ally
The mission of Prostate Cancer UK is clear, critical, and compelling: to beat prostate cancer, together. The charity funds research and invests in better treatments and tests to spot fast-growing cancers early. Prostate Cancer UK offers a support line staffed by specialist nurses to help men and their loved ones. People can also speak with volunteers who have gone through similar health-related experiences.
- A Top Tip from Prostate Cancer UK: Look for partners. For the last decade, the charity has teamed up with Movember to become the main beneficiary of the campaign, which has raised over £400 million for men’s health issues. Much of these funds have been invested back into Prostate Cancer UK to fund research and other services. Who are your allies? Don’t limit your collaborations to charities; you could also partner with individuals or businesses that care about the issues you fight for.
Samaritans: Listen to Your Audience (and Learn from Them!)
The Samaritans’ mission is to provide lifesaving suicide prevention services. It’s an especially important issue during International Men’s Health Week—suicide in the UK is a startling three times more common among men than women and men aged 45 to 49 have the highest rate of suicide. Samaritans is focused on identifying and providing lifesaving suicide prevention support to men. In fact, it recently published a report, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, by speaking directly with less well-off, middle-aged men to find out what they really need from support services.
- A Top Tip from Samaritans: Understand your audience and listen to them. Just as Samaritans went directly to the source to put together the above report, it also published a handbook based on a series of co-designed workshops with men. Take the time to listen to your unique audience—the outcome will be more meaningful and impactful services for your cause and your constituents. Who is your audience? How might you get in touch with your beneficiaries to better understand how you can serve them?
Mind the Men: Mind the Merchandise!
Mind the Men is more than just a clever name; the charity’s mission is to provide suicide peer support groups where men can meet in a safe place to talk about the challenges they face. Mind the Men aims to reduce suicide by providing a safe and supportive environment where talking is the first step to realising that there are other options.
- A Top Tip from Mind the Men: Mind the merchandise! Often, people would like to support your cause but find it challenging to participate because of location, ability, or just the busyness of everyday life. Mind the Men has a charity shop on Facebook, where it sells a range of MindtheMen wristbands, so that more people can sport the bands and promote the charity’s efforts. Aim for simple, affordable, creative, or functional merchandise, and offer items at various price points to appeal to even more supporters.
These are just a few of the many charities supporting men’s health this month and all year long. Who else is fighting to improve the health and wellness of men, boys, and their families, and how? We’d love to hear about your preferred campaigns; perhaps we can brainstorm even more top tips to ensure your charity has the same impact and success with your own cause, be it for men, women, children, animals, or the environment. Please get in touch with us today, and maybe we’ll see you out and about for #menshealthweek!