VibeSpace Mental Health used to be formed of three separate campaign elements and social media pages.

Chan-Dog’s VibeVan

Chan-Dog’s VibeVan was how this mental health awareness campaign all started. It began in May 2018, where Rob Chandler, the founder, used his nickname from his career in international financial services “Chan-Dog,” and drove around in a little blue van he called the “VibeVan” to promote the hashtag (#CDP2P), a peer to peer support group he set up on Facebook with music.

The purpose of the VibeVan is to spread a message of “peace, love, positive vibes and raise mental health awareness by connecting to people through music.”

This rapidly grew to the campaign to a sizeable following of around 1500 people, in 18 months across Facebook and Instagram and has been mentioned in local and national news 18 times and won an award from Deliveroo.

The VibeVan then became me an entity in itself and was featured in local and national news and was onsite running mental health awareness music stands at several music festivals and market stalls around the UK.

Sadly, in late 2020 it encountered catastrophic engine failure and was sold as a non-runner for spares or repair in mid 2021, putting a complete end to this element of the campaign.

Chan-Dog’s Peer to Peer Support Group

This support page, where content was uploaded relating to mental health and it’s followers were encouraged to message the page if they were experiencing any problems with their mental health.

Mental Health Awareness CIC

Mental Health Awareness CIC was formed as the fundraising arm for a mental health awareness campaign that was initially solely self-funded by Rob from his savings that remained from his career in financial services, which came to an abrupt end following a mental breakdown in 2015 and a circa 3 year battle with his mental health.

– We have coordinated distribution of around 4,000 flyers to promote mental health awareness key facts around the UK.

– The organisation is headed up by a qualified mental health first aider, who undertook the course accredited by MHFA England in February 2019.

– We run a Facebook based peer to peer support group with over 300 members.

– Mental Health Awareness CIC in summer 2019 was involved in organising and sponsoring Evesham’s first Pride event and would have been supplying free onsite mental health support. Rob had to resign from this project, 4 months later, due to problems with with committee they would not address, despite numerous attempts and him providing constructive feedback and solutions. The event still has not yet been organised 3 years later.

– The fundraising team went live in June 2019, it is outsourced and managed by Foundation Fundraising, based in Bristol.

In the end, we had to close this organisation due to issues with the fundraising operation and it’s staff experiencing problems and harassment from the council in Bristol. Then came the COVID lockdowns of 2020, meaning there was no way to fundraise with the street campaign, as the streets were empty. In summer 2020 Rob was a victim of fraud and then there were no funds available to pay for the accountants exorbitant fees and the CIC was dissolved in early 2021.

As you can see the campaign has experienced its fair share of adversity, but owing to Rob’s sheer grit and determination and drive to help people with their mental health and offer hope and inspiration to others to embark on a path of positive change and find fulfilment in their lives.

This brings us to the present day and the full rebrand and gradual consolidation to VibeSpace Mental Health, with the attached private members support group on the Facebook page to tidy the campaign up and streamline operations allowing for more efficient management and administration of the campaign.

You can of course read all about the campaigns activities, absorb the free to use and share information we provide and consider booking the services we offer, as you navigate around this website.

If you’d like to help the campaign grow, please share it’s content to people you know on social media with the hashtag #VibeSpaceMH. If you wish to offer financial support to the campaign, please consider making a donation.

Any support we receive it hugely appreciated and helps us continue to do this important work.

Thanks for reading about the history of this campaign and most importantly, for being a part of its future!