Learning

Putting our Public Purposes into action: Promoting education and learning

What does this mean?

The BBC aims to encourage people to develop new skills throughout their lifetimes. We have a dedicated BBC Learning department that uses the best of the BBC – its content, talent and creative skills – to offer resources and opportunities for learning. The department supports formal education, often curriculum-related, and also encourages active participation in learning in a much wider sense.

How do we do it?

BBC Headroom is a three-year learning campaign that aims to raise awareness on the importance of looking after your mental health and wellbeing, and help de-stigmatise mental illness.

The website is the focal point of the campaign. It offers a range of interactive guides covering different topics. One section is Ruby’s Room, which features 24 films on a wide range of mental health issues. In each film Ruby Wax talks to someone with first-hand experience of mental illness.

26 year old Steve Light has previously suffered from social anxiety. He got involved with Headroom by volunteering to share his experiences during an interview with Ruby Wax, which now lives on the Headroom website for others to watch. Here he comments on the project:

“The whole experience was life changing for me, the fact that I was on camera feeling totally at ease was a liberating feeling. I am being a stand for social anxiety sufferers and I want them to know that they can overcome their fear, just like I did.

I feel that the BBC Headroom campaign is a must have service to the community, we need more role models like Ruby to stand up and say, this is who I am and there is a way out. I wished this service was around when I was at my lowest. It’s going to help a lot of people and I will support the campaign all I can.”

Find out more at bbc.co.uk/headroom/