Jersey Recovery College (JRC), the local mental health charity which provides free education and training to enable people to better understand and manage poor mental health and aid recovery, is marking its fifth birthday this month.
JRC began in 2017 and has since supported 1382 individual people, some of whom regularly attend the service regularly.
The birthday is being celebrated with an art installation of 1000 origami cranes made by the local community as symbols of hope and connection for those affected by poor mental health.
The installation, hosted by Jersey Library and open to the public, has been designed and produced by Ramparts, a local community arts organisation. Jersey Library and Ramparts are kindly supporting JRC for free with their celebrations. Several local community groups including Grouville Primary School, Mind Jersey, Citizen’s Advice Bureau and the Association of Jersey Charities have made cranes for the exhibition as well as many individuals.
The cranes made by the children at Grouville Primary school include messages of hope written on the wings. Once the installation is complete the cranes will be given out to JRC students on future courses.
The crane was chosen as a symbol of hope due to its representation as the “bird of happiness”, and a symbol of hope and healing during periods of ill-health, or periods of difficulty in Japanese culture.
Executive Officer, Beth Moore (pictured), said: “JRC provides its students with hope and empowerment. We gave out origami cranes during our first development event in 2016, as they fit so beautifully with our message and values. It seems only appropriate to repeat this gesture – but even bigger, and better – to celebrate our fifth birthday and spread a message of hope and recovery.”
The installation will be available for the public to enjoy at Jersey Monday 13th June to Monday 25th July.
