Active Minds Responds
Community Tragedy
We will empower students to own their grief and take steps to help others. Active Minds, Inc. will send a national office staff member to help students organize in response to a tragic event and deliver the resources needed to sustain a chapter of Active Minds.
First Name
Marc
Last Name
Peters
Website URL
Country
United States
Organization Name
Active Minds, Inc.
Organization Website
Organization Phone
202.332.9595
Organization Address
Organization Country
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Name Your Project
Active Minds Responds: Community Tragedy
Country your work focuses on
United States
Describe Your Idea
We will empower students to own their grief and take steps to help others. Active Minds, Inc. will send a national office staff member to help students organize in response to a tragic event and deliver the resources needed to sustain a chapter of Active Minds.
What makes your idea unique?
Alison Malmon founded Active Minds, Inc. in response to having lost her brother to suicide and with the desire to prevent any other students from suffering in silence the way that he did. We are the leading student voice in mental health awareness, empowering college and university students to engage in peer education and partner with clinical services to combat the unnecessary stigma that surrounds mental health. By engaging in peer-to-peer based awareness, we are building the next generation of mental health advocates. We are the only national mental health organization working directly with students as opposed to educating staff and faculty about issues that students may be facing.
We believe that by fostering change on campuses around the country, we can and do build more supportive and understanding environments for students to seek help when it is needed. If students lose a classmate to suicide or if a gunman terrorizes a campus, Active Minds wants to be in the position to help students channel their grief and energy into something positive. Active Minds Responds would provide a productive place for individuals touched by tragic events and trauma to address the mental health issues that could arise in the future as individuals begin to cope.
After a tragedy on campus or in a community, students must take part in the healing process in order for the community to truly heal. A better understanding of mental health can strengthen campus and community ties and connect students with necessary resources. We believe that once successful in a pilot capacity, Active Minds Responds could be replicated in a variety of settings when a tragedy occurs, be it a hurricane in New Orleans, 9/11 in NYC or a shooting at Virginia Tech.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
There is a societal misconception that individuals with mental illnesses are violent. Incidents like the shootings at Virginia Tech that took place on April 16, 2007 often increase the stigma and shame that is attached to mental health issues. Our chapters create informed dialogue on their campuses and change the conversation about mental health from one of fear and stigma to one of education and understanding. They advertise counseling services, educate peers on warning signs, and let students know that they are not alone in their struggles. Our chapter located at Virginia Tech has been extremely effective at educating their peers by publishing letters to the editor of their campus newspaper on issues of mental health awareness and stigma. On a campus that was touched by tragedy, these dedicated Active Minds members work day in and day out to let others know the warning signs of mental health issues. This year they participated in Active Minds’ National Day Without Stigma (www.activeminds.org/stopstigma), an event that included materials on “How to Help a Friend”.
Some Active Minds chapter members have mental health disorders; some have parents, friends, or siblings living with mental illness; others are simply interested in the cause; all of them want to raise awareness and make a profound difference on their campuses. Thanks to their efforts and the work of our staff at our DC headquarters, Active Minds reaches 2.5 million students with our programming and has emerged as the leading voice in student mental health advocacy.
Problem
There are students all over the country who are living in the aftermath of tragedy. This generation faced huge, life-altering events. We bore witness to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. With at least 1,100 students lost to suicide each year, scarcely a college or university is not touched by tragedy. Often they do not know how to respond. Some are hesitant to publicize the fact that a student committed suicide. Others find solace in making sure that other students do not meet a similar fate. Some suicide survivors do not want to glorify the act of their friend, but wish to honor their memory by making a difference in the lives of others. People do not have a productive outlet for their grief nor a way to harness the energy that is created by their anxiety. We want students to understand that they are not alone in their struggles.
Actions
Active Minds, Inc. is culling best practices from our chapters that have been started by individuals inspired by some form of tragedy in their lives. We want to pilot this program in New Orleans, where the community is still reeling after Hurricane Katrina. Long after the flood water has washed away, we are seeing the psychological scars left behind. A local New Orleans nonprofit, REACH-NOLA, does tremendous work in the community to reduce stigma around mental health and increase access to resources. However it is unclear if their campus efforts go beyond training educators and counselors in how to recognize signs of depression and PTSD. We are also researching the efforts of REACH-NOLA to find out what, if any, action is presently taking place on campuses in the city.
Results
Active Minds Responds will allow students to channel their grief into a positive effort that can prevent future tragedies from taking place. One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with a tragedy is loss of control. Knowing that they are helping to prevent future tragedies will allow these students to heal from the one that they experienced personally. In order to have students buy-in to treatment and really get the help they need and deserve, we must counteract the prevailing stigma and ignorance that exists on too many college campuses. Our anecdotal evidence implies that students are far more likely to seek help if they are approached by a peer rather than by an adult. By partnering with their counseling center and other administrative offices, Active Minds students will make resources more accessible to their peers during the aftermath of tragic events.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year one (Pilot Stage): Our goal is to achieve community buy-in and change the campus culture that exists around mental health. We will be developing Active Minds chapters on at least four college campuses in New Orleans, including one of the three historically black colleges and HBCUs.
Year two (Develop additional resources): The response to each community tragedy will be different. However, by culling best practices, we believe we can position ourselves to provide a guide for how students can respond to a suicide on their campus, a guide for how to respond to a disaster that rocks a community to its core, and other resources that would provide a framework for immediately developing and executing plans of action in the aftermath of a tragedy.
Year three (Sustain and Respond): In year three, Active Minds will evaluate the progress of the Responds program and continue to assist the sustainability of chapters that have started in the aftermath of tragedies to sustain. The organization will also be in a position to continue responding to tragedies that occur across the country.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Every school responds to tragedy differently. Some publicize it widely, while others issue brief statements. Every family copes differently. Every individual copes differently. Accommodating the differing comfort levels of all the students, faculty, and staff involved could be a barrier to success. Everyone, tragedy or no tragedy, is affected by mental health in some way- from their own personal experiences, or the experience of someone in their family, a friend, a peer, SOMEONE they know. However, as far reaching and wide spread as mental health issues are, we don’t talk about them nearly enough. We are restrained by stigma, paralyzed by fear and unsure how to take the first step. Stigma is always the toughest barrier for our organization to overcome. If there is overwhelming stigma in a community toward discussions about mental health/mental illness then it can be difficult for Active Minds to find traction in general, a problem that might be magnified post-tragedy when emotions are running high. Lack of financial resources and an adequate number of staff can also be a huge barrier to the work that we are doing.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
In what country?
United States
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Active Minds, Inc.
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Active Minds would not be able to truly serve as the young adult voice in mental health without the strategic partnerships we have with other nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies. Through these partnerships, we are able to make mental health programming materials targeting students available to our students - and really have a presence on campus. In addition, we are able to make popular leadership programs normally reserved for student government members (through the Wellstone Action Network, etc) available to student mental health advocates, which ensures that we are cultivating the most knowledgeable future generation of leaders in mental health. Through partnerships with the National Institutes of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, we are able to guarantee that the young adult voice is heard and that its presence is felt in their strategic planning and projects. Without these partnerships, our innovative program and approach would not be able to thrive.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
The three most important actions needed to grow this initiative include staff capacity building at the national headquarters, technological capacity building at the headquarters and through our chapters, and increased linkages between our chapters both virtually and physically. We are a small office, with a staff of five that does the work of 15. In order to truly support our chapters and continue to grow and thrive, our staff and our technological infrastructure must be greatly improved.
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
I served as an AmeriCorps volunteer with Operation REACH during the summer of 2007. I felt that since I couldn’t build or repair homes, I’d try to build confidence in New Orleans’ young people and help them to repair their internal wounds from Hurricane Katrina. Two years later, I now spend every day working to raise awareness about mental health, but it frustrates me to see New Orleans fall so far from the national consciousness. It was only a few years ago that we all turned on CNN to images of our fellow citizens stuck on their rooftops waiting for rescue. It seems like yesterday that we were hearing horror stories about the emergency shelters in the Dome and the Convention Center. Sure we sent donations. Sure we volunteered. We cut checks to Habitat for Humanity. We opened our veins to the blood banks, but no sooner did the needle prick heal than did we completely forget.
The local community in New Orleans rallied. I’ve never seen a more compassionate, considerate, and strong-willed group of people. I went down there to lend a hand and they were the ones extending theirs to make sure that I felt at home. The ONE thing that they asked in return was that we not forget about the ever-present struggle of the city to bring itself back, not from the brink of disaster, but from ALL-OUT disaster. I’ll never forget the images burned in my mind of abandoned homes and a city completely up-ended.
This year one of my campers from that summer passed away. He was 16. It was at that moment that I started thinking about what more I could be doing to draw national attention to the needs of New Orleans. This innovation sprang from that tragedy.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
I joined the staff at Active Minds because I decided it was time that I stopped merely living with bipolar disorder and started to use my personal experience with mental illness to help others. My freshman year of college, I had a psychotic breakdown. I ended up spending a month in a mental hospital and months in outpatient treatment, eventually being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Fortunately, I had supportive friends, but I have no doubt that some of my classmates were forced to suffer in silence and in shame. Even with understanding people around me, it took a couple of years before I began to feel comfortable talking about what had happened with anyone other than my doctor.
I work at Active Minds because I want to reach a day when everyone can talk about bipolar disorder, depression, and all the rest, in the same way they would talk about being born left-handed. Something in our brain chemistry is a little bit different and we’re supposed to be ashamed? I can understand the fear of being judged. I can understand the fear of stigma. Ignorance breeds misunderstanding and fear. The best way we can truly combat stigma is to share our stories.
I am a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in newspaper journalism and public policy studies. From April 2007-September 2008, I served as national student blog director for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. I am an AmeriCorps alum who has worked as a communication strategist for the U.S. Public Service Academy, and a blogger for ServiceNation and the V3 Campaign. In addition to my current work at Active Minds, I operate www.bipolarrealities.com, a personal blog on what it is like to live with bipolar disorder. I plan to be a lifelong mental health advocate.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
 | Patricia Breuer Moreno updated this idea. - 152 days ago. |
 | Marc Peters said: I really appreciate your kind words Noelle. -Marc, Active Minds, Inc. about this idea. - 155 days ago read more > |
| Noelle Chun said: This is a great idea, Marc. I especially like how Active Minds works at the campus level, a formative time and place in people's lives. ... about this idea. - 156 days ago read more > |
| Marc Peters updated this idea. - 156 days ago. |
 | Marc Peters submitted this idea. - 156 days ago |
Take action: |
||
|
share this entry |
add to favorites |
|
|
discuss |
||
Quick Translate:
This Entry is about:
Links:
- 559 reads