Our Chosen Charity!

 

Action for Happiness helps people look after their mental wellbeing and campaigns for mental wellbeing to be given much greater priority. Research shows that mental ill-health causes more of the suffering in our society than physical illness, poverty or unemployment – but it gets far less attention. Antidepressant use has grown by 500% in 20 years and over a third of people in the UK experience mental health issues during their lifetime. Yet only 30% of people suffering receive any help, due to poor service provision, lack of understanding and stigma. As a result, most people remain unaware of the many practical things we can all do to look after our wellbeing. Action for Happiness provides evidence-based ideas and solutions to improve mental wellbeing in families, communities, schools and workplaces. It also works to ensure a greater focus on promoting wellbeing in government policy. It has a network of over 200,000 members and followers and is backed by leading experts from psychology, health, education and social innovation. Action for Happiness is part of The Young Foundation, a Registered Charity (274345) and Company Limited by Guarantee (1319183) in England and Wales

Dr Mark Williamson is Director of Action for Happiness (www.actionforhappiness.org), a movement of people taking action to create a happier society. Mark has a diverse range of experience across private and non-profit sectors, from start-ups through to large multi-national companies. He was previously Director of the Innovation unit at the Carbon Trust. He was also a non-executive director of Solar Press and founder of online initiative What You Can Do. Before that, Mark spent nine years as a management consultant with Accenture, leading a wide range of projects relating to strategy, technology and change management. He has also worked for Hewlett Packard Labs and Orange. He holds an MBA from IMD business school in Switzerland, and a PhD in Electronics and Communications from the University of Bristol. He is a Sainsbury Management Fellow, a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Directors.                              Dress Code                                              

Linking to our chosen charity we decided on a theme of ‘Happiness’ for the night and we will be encouraging all attendees to wear one item of clothing that is colourful to break up the black…