Our goal is to raise awareness and break down the stigma surrounding mental health.

We are inviting Canadians to Be a Part of Something Bigger and to join us on June 24 th, 2018 for the Ride Don t Hide event. This Toolkit has been designed to give you the tools to support you as you build your own signature Ride Don t Hide Anywhere team. The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) will provide the following in support of your community Ride Don t Hide Anywhere event: The 12 steps to creating a successful ride Promotional material templates (posters, postcards, logos, t-shirt design and ability to purchase) Access to your own team fundraising page through www.ridedonthide.com. This will allow you to send invites and donor requests to family, friends and colleagues. Key messages About the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) The Canadian Mental Health Association is the nationwide leader and champion for mental health. Its goal is to ensure access to resources people need to maintain and improve mental health and community integration, build resilience, and support recovery from mental illness. Our goal is to raise awareness and break down the stigma surrounding mental health. Pg. 1

Who is affected? Mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at some time through a family member, friend or colleague. By age 40, about 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness. In any given year, 1 in 5 people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness. Mental illness affects people of all ages, education, income levels, and cultures. Approximately 8% of adults will experience major depression at some time in their lives. Anxiety disorders affect 5% of the household population, causing mild to severe impairment. Suicide accounts for 24% of all deaths among 15-24 year olds and 16% among 25-44 year olds. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in both men and women from adolescence to middle age. The mortality rate due to suicide among men is four times the rate among women. By hosting a Ride Don t Hide Anywhere in your community, you will be helping bring awareness about the challenges surrounding those with mental illness. In 2017, we hosted 7500 riders in over 30 communities in Canada. Our goal is to reach 10,000 riders, and we are thrilled that you are joining us to be a part of something bigger. The words should not be scary: Mental illness. It means strength. It means courage. It means persistence. It means tremendous willpower to face the fight, day in and day out, usually unbeknownst to those in the public. cyclist from Ontario Pg. 2

Step 1: Create a Team First things first, you need to create your Ride Don t Hide Anywhere team: 1. Visit www.ridedonthide.com 2. Click on Ride Don t Hide Anywhere 3. Choose Register for this Ride 4. Choose Virtual Rider 5. Click Create at Team. Remember to have fun with your team name, and make sure that you indicate which town you will be riding in as part of your name (i.e. Mind Matters Kelowna ). The registration site creates an individualized URL link just for your team and a URL for yourself as one of the riders on the team. While on your personal fundraising page, send out invitations right away to your contacts or use the social media links. Have your team members register by going to www.ridedonthide.com clicking on Register, then click on Team Search. You can search via Team Name or Team Captain. Step 2: Create Your Plan Start early and create a plan. Brainstorm ideas for the ride and set goals and objectives. Option 1: A Ride Team on Ride Date Gather a few friends together to ride on the national ride date (this won t take a significant amount of planning, just an invite out to your friends to ride and to become fundraisers). If this what you want to do, go to Step 7. Option 2: A Full-Scale Event Plan a full event that requires detailed planning and a group of volunteers to assist in the execution of the event. If yes, the remaining steps will be helpful. Pg. 3

If you are considering option 2, consider the following: What will the event day look like? Music, food, speeches, prizes, volunteers Suggested meeting schedule: 2 3 meetings at the beginning of the planning stage and keep your committee engaged by providing email updates A meeting one month before the ride to ramp up donations and numbers of riders A final meeting during the week before the ride to review event details, speeches, and the last-minute to-do list Create a timeline of the event day Step 3: Build Your Planning Committee This is a great way to engage community members early and get them excited about the Ride. Get started right away with your planning. To build your planning committee: Gather a keen group who are committed and ready to make a difference: community members, bike shops, riding clubs, fitness groups, business groups, companies and student representatives from local schools. Find a solid group of individuals who are ready to volunteer (great for volunteer hours, employee engagement) for all the promotional handouts and event day activities. Step 4: Take Action Design the ride: When? Where? (set ride routes that everyone can enjoy) What time? How many riders? How long will the ride be? Will you have a short ride and a long ride? Think about safety! Route markers and route marshals to press the traffic light buttons and help riders cross the roads Double check with the city about road permits Have some fun: create a map of the route at www.mapmyride.com Tip: don t forget to test the route! Pg. 4

Step 5: Identify Your Champions Champions are Ride Don t Hide team captains or whoever is assigned to promote Ride Don t Hide to their friends and families. Champions are the driving force for this fundraising event, so recruit them as early as possible. How to identify champions: engage community and business leaders, celebrities and elected officials in your community to be involved. engage the local riding community to be involved. engage the senior students in local public schools and post-secondary schools to inspire and encourage youth and young adult participation. share your personal story which can encourage others to do so as well. Step 6: Recruit Volunteers Recruit volunteers early! You will need as many volunteers as possible. Get teams and groups involved (sports teams, leadership). Identify how many volunteers are needed. Assign champions to a specific work station. They need to be well informed about their duties so they can train and lead other volunteers. Staging area» setup / signs / welcome / cheers o Registration and prizes o Rider support help answer questions about the ride o Food station» Cleanup usually shared among all staff and all volunteers Route o volunteers to be route marshals o Rider packages and goodie bags Distribution of volunteer t-shirts, safety vests and supplies Pg. 5

Step 7: Get the Word Out Get the community excited by telling everyone about the ride! Put up posters Get the local radio station and newspaper involved Create incentives for participants to fill up their pledge forms if they are doing off-line donations. Invite people to join your team by sending out emails from your fundraising page. spread the word through social media o post about your event and your team on your Facebook page and tag us #ridedonthide o Remind friends and family to tweet and post photos to share their experiences. o if you or someone on your team is able to speak about their own personal experience, the reason for the ride will be more compelling and will garner you additional support and local media requests for interviews. Step 8: Fundraise Get creative with the community: organize a bake sale, car wash or other fun event. Ask a local sponsor to assist with additional expenses for the day printing banners, posters, water, music, hot dog lunch. All registered riders will receive a fundraising website to send out emails to friends, family and co workers to support you and the event! Fundraise with Facebook: if you re not a member of Facebook yet, join it s an amazing tool for fundraising and team recruitment! Meet other riders in your area and check out upcoming Ride Don t Hide events by following Ride Don t Hide on Facebook Fundraise with Social Media: stay in the know with Instagram and Twitter by following @ridedonthide and using #ridedonthide. Use your social network to tweet your personal page links and fundraising messaging. Pg. 6

Step 9: Construct Your Event Site logistics for event day: Create to-do checklists weeks in advance (assign a deadline to complete each task and check box) Items to bring on site list prizes, food items, signage and road markers People to call list make sure it has the contact information of all your suppliers Banners list have all the banners, make sure you have identified locations to display them, and bring zap straps to hang them Create a timeline or event schedule for the day s proceedings Create big posters to be displayed at the event:» Display the event schedule» Route map volunteer station Plan post-ride activities and cleanup Step 10: Turn up the Music Secure entertainment and activities that will keep participants engaged: Music Face painting Theme the ride (i.e., superheroes) Prizes (i.e., top fundraiser to present cheque) Yoga Relay bike race can keep participants engaged and useful if there is a lack of available bikes Tip: if you have a short route, you can do laps of the route. (i.e. most laps in an hour wins a prize). Pg. 7

Step 11: Feed the Troops Everyone loves food! Food for participants is not expected, but encouraged Try to secure sponsors to donate or pay for food Pick up/delivery of supplies (if prior, think about where to store them) Food safety handling and storage Water and juice at staging area and water stations set up the food stations, making sure stations are under cover (tented) and establish a traffic pattern volunteers serving / cooking / cleanup Recycling and garbage bring garbage bags / bins and recycling bins Step 12: Tell us Your Story! Your local CMHA branch and CMHA National wants to hear your story! Tell us your story send us photos: ridedonthide@cmha.ca Ask participants to share their experience on social media: @RideDontHide and tag their posts #ridedonthide Let us know what worked and what didn t Start planning early for next year TIP: Have a volunteer taking photos Pg. 8

Thank You! Thank you for your support. If you have any questions, please contact: Richelle Komes thinkcompass 416-364-8884 Richelle.komes@thinkcompass.ca Naranjan Nota thinkcompass 416-364-8884 Naranjan.nota@thinkcompass.ca Pg. 9