ACO member LionHeart was invited to the GEO Business Show at ExCel London for the second year running through its links with RICS.
CEO Davina Goodchild teamed up with one of the LionHeart ambassadors, facilities management surveyor Owen Gower, to lead a session on mental health. While awareness and understanding is increasing, many industries still have a lot to do, and Davina and Owen led an interactive session discussing what organisations have to gain from encouraging employees to be open about mental health and being able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.
As the conference included professionals from across the geospatial industry – including engineers, architects, and other construction professionals – Davina took a few minutes to highlight the range of other charities and benevolent funds that are there to help, not only with mental health but other challenges people may be facing.
She said: “Usually the events we attend are predominantly made up of surveying professionals but with this being more of a mixed audience I felt it was important to highlight the many other amazing charities that do similar work to us in supporting other trades and professions, as one of our key messages was learning to recognise when you might need help – for yourself or someone else.
We’ve long had good connections with fellow property benevolent funds and our links with ACO have also shown how powerful it can be to collectively highlight all the work that is being done by member charities to support people in times of need. People are often surprised by the range of benevolent funds that exist so we’re always keen to do what we can to spread the word!”