What a whirlwind of a year it has already been! 2018 has seen Thrive Law launch, grow its team, expand its clientele, gain national recognition for its campaign to make mental health first aiders mandatory and host our Thriving Minds events to provide resources to ensure a thriving workforce.
We set up in March with the ethos to support both employers and employees to ‘Thrive’ in the workplace and are proudly ending 2018 encapsulating the same message and will continue to do so in the following years.
How did it begin?
Jodie’s personal experience with poor mental health in the workplace and not being offered the correct support fuelled her ambition to create a positive, flexible working environment and to offer legal advice to individuals who are having issues in the workplace. The traditional structure of private practice did not offer her the opportunity to innovate and create a flexible working environment. Jodie recognises the moral urgency to tackle mental health in the workplace through her varied experience advising both respondents and claimants in her capacity as a solicitor and working closely with Leeds MIND, on a pro bono basis to help individuals with mental health problems to remain in employment. It also makes great sense from an economical point of view with The Lancet and Deloitte finding that the average return on investment of workplace mental health interventions was between £4,20 and £9.98 for every £1 spent. These motivating findings and Jodie’s experiences reiterate Thrive’s campaign to make mental health first aiders mandatory in the workplace and were key factors in defining Thrive Law.
Our Campaign
The campaign has gained national media exposure having been featured on Sky News, BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, The Law Society Gazette, Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Legal amongst other media outlets. At Thrive, we are proud to be spearheading a cause which affects almost 75% of employees who report experiencing symptoms of poor mental health, so this phenomenon has never been more relevant. Our petition to make mental health first aiders mandatory has now gained over several thousand signatures with the support of MPs such as Paula Sherriff, Rachel Reeves and Alistair Campbell. Our campaign has also seen HSE update their guidelines for mental health last month for the first time and has caused a back bench debate in Parliament only yesterday!
The #ThriveTribe
Thrive has grown from just Jodie in March to a seven-strong team and is still growing to cope with demand. We now have three paralegals, Beth, Sonia and Annabelle, a digital marketing and social media apprentice called Khaleeqa, our PA Chantell, our solicitor Imogen and our FD Julie Bickerdyke. We work together on a daily basis to provide our clients with a seamless experience and to ensure Thrive operates smoothly. We will continue to expand throughout 2019 and hope to add another solicitor to our #ThriveTribe.
Thriving Minds
We launched our Thriving Minds initiative as a mechanism to provide knowledge about improving mental health and wellbeing in the workplace through resources, interactive workshops, lived experience speakers, seminars and conferences. Our key influencers who have been guest speakers at our events include The Yorkshire Post deputy business editor, Greg Wright, ex-England Sevens rugby captain and wellbeing advocate, Rob Vickerman and an array of mental health experts. Our first event, the Thriving Minds Conference was hosted on the 10th October in partnership with Research Retold, following its success we then held our Thriving Minds National Stress Awareness Breakfast Seminar on the 7th November in partnership with Calm People and Lean Lunch. Thriving Minds was a resounding success with overwhelmingly positive feedback, 100% of our feedback respondents stated they would recommend the Thriving Minds conference to a friend or a colleague. We could not be more thankful for such lovely attendees, workshop hosts and speakers who share our vision of positive mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Most importantly, Thriving Minds equips our attendees with the skills and tools to make a change immediately to better mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. We launched our Thriving Minds Facebook group on the 10th October which now has over 160 members. Membership offers a multitude of benefits including networking with likeminded individuals, encouraging conversation around mental health, sharing advice and exclusive resources to immediately implement wellbeing measures in your workplace. We don’t just stop there, as a little thank you we offer discounts on our future events for supporting us.
In 2019, we already have two exciting events planned.
A Thriving Minds Breakfast Seminar on the 25th January and A Mental Health First Aid training course on the 14-15th of January.
Awards and Nominations
We are completely overwhelmed to be nominated for a variety of awards which showcases both Jodie’s and the Thrive Tribe’s hard work over the past nine months. Our nominations include:
- Law Society Excellence Awards 2018 – “Personality of the Year”
- Brand Yorkshire Awards – “Best New Business”
- Inspiring Women Changemakers Awards – “Diversity Driven Business”
- Northern Power Women – Jodie was nominated for 4 awards
Thank you 2018
2018 has exceeded our expectations, we have learnt so much, achieved incredible things and of course we have big ambitions for 2019.
We hope to combine our legal services with the tech industry to provide legal services to a wider market. Thrive is evolving to mirror the current trends and ground-breaking technologies to improve efficiency and strive for innovation. We will continue to break the stigma that is entrenched within traditional law firms which stereotypes lawyers as mundane individuals. Here at Thrive we are a proud team of vibrant individuals.
Finally a huge thank you to all of our amazing clients, speakers, attendees and speakers at events and everyone who has supported us along this journey so far, we hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we have and we look forward to working with you in 2019.
We cannot wait for 2019 – but for now, we are taking a well-deserved break and closing for Christmas.
We will be open again on 2nd Jan with light touch team and then the full team back from 10th January 2019.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
