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Congratulations Joel Anderson (Class of 2009)

Posted 27 Oct, 2023

Joel has created affordable mental health and support programs for small and blue-collar businesses has been recognised by the Snow Foundation.

A former Radford College student who has created affordable mental health and support programs for small and blue-collar businesses has been recognised by the Snow Foundation.

Foremind founder Joel Anderson was one of nine recipients from around the nation named in the Snow Entrepreneurs – fellowships for social change program.

The recipients shared in grants totalling $1.5 million and will have access to “extensive capacity-building support” to help take their ventures to the next level.

Mr Anderson, 31, received $200,000 from the foundation to develop Foremind, which is working towards zero suicide by making wellbeing in the workplace a mainstream concern.

“I was absolutely blown away,” he said, of the grant.

The grant would help created films of people who could explain their own lived experience of mental health struggles and develop mental health training that was not overly long or expensive.

“We want to make something you can do right now to support your own and your colleagues’ mental health,” Mr Anderson said.

Foremind has been focusing on the construction sector but wants to put in place the training across small and medium enterprises.

“It shouldn’t just be the top end of town that can afford these amazing wellbeing platforms when 93 per cent of Australians work in small/medium business,” he said.

Mr Anderson, who grew up in Canberra and started the business in the national capital, moved to Sydney two years ago. Foremind has team members in Canberra and elsewhere around the country.

He had been working in engineering when he had his own mental health struggles and started to consider suicide.

“It wasn’t the fault of the company I was working for at the time – I was just incapable of handling things in a positive way,” he said.

He hit rock bottom and started to make some real changes in his life, including volunteering with Menslink for four years and then focusing on how businesses could support their workers in meaningful ways.

Foremind now includes information, lived experience stories and wellbeing check-ins as well as the option to choose a qualified mental health counsellor

The Snow Foundation CEO Georgina Byron said the fellowships “honour our own entrepreneurial beginnings and those of our founder, Terry Snow”.

“We have a long history of supporting and maintaining long-term partnerships with passionate up-and-coming entrepreneurs who are looking to solve problems in new ways,” she said.

Congratulations Joel.

Content and photography: Canberra Times 27.10.2023