Buy Social for World Mental Health Day Buy Social for a Better World and World Mental Health Day – both campaigns that reflect the ethics at the heart of Organic Blooms – have serendipitously coincided this year.

The launch week for the national Buy Social for a Better World campaign runs until this Saturday 12 October and today, 10 October, is World Mental Health Day, the annual global mental health awareness day.

Mental health and wellbeing are at the very heart of our social mission at Organic Blooms. For people marginalised because of mental health conditions, who have fallen through the gaps in the employment market, the opportunity to learn vocational skills in a green environment – with the prospect of progressing into paid or voluntary employment or further training – can have a profoundly positive impact on their mental health.

Our work with trainees is possible only because people buy from our Social Enterprise – and we only have customers because our flowers, which trainees play a key role in growing, are of such high quality. So the fulfilment of our social mission and the success of our business are completely interlinked.

For our trainees it is not only their own personal development that improves their mental health. It is also knowing that they are an important part of a team that is totally behind them and here for them. And it is being part of an organisation with strong environmental ethics that cares for the soil and strives to improve local biodiversity. We believe that taking positive, practical action to improve and protect the environment has a significant beneficial impact on mental wellbeing.

The majority of Social Enterprises, whatever their social or environmental mission, have a direct or indirect impact on the mental health of the people and communities they support. A microbrewery that trains and employs former offenders; a bakery that supports vulnerable women; a hotel that employs homeless people; nurseries providing affordable childcare enabling parents on low incomes to work: all contribute to more resilient mental wellbeing.

Those mental health benefits are shared with the people who work for social businesses and extend further to their customers. Buying a product or service and knowing that our purchase contributes to positive social or environmental change makes us feel good, and that can only be good for our mental health.

So big thanks to all our customers who support the mental health of our trainees by buying products or courses from our Social Enterprise. And whatever you need today, from coffee to clothing, flatbreads to furniture, hens to hotels please check whether you can Buy Social to make a positive difference to mental health and wellbeing this World Mental Health Day – look out for the Buy Social logo. #BuySocial #WMHD