Positive-Media, saved more than 15,000 people from suicide
POSITIVE solutions for suicidal thoughts are created from 200 evidences by those who overcame suicide.
About You
About You
First Name
Ryuichi
Last Name
Okita
Twitter URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
POSi-MEDiA
Organization Website
Organization Country
Japan, XX
Country where this project is creating social impact
Japan, XX
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Positive-Media, saved more than 15,000 people from suicide
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
POSi-MEDiA (Positive Media) is a first place to access for people who are suffering from problems such as suicide thoughts, bullying, debt problems, and violence. We provide a website called “Iki-tech” to find the solution to these issues. (Iki-tech is a Japanese coined word meaning for Techniques to Live On)
"Iki-tech" is one of the key projects of Positive-Media. It is a service for those who are having suicidal thoughts. The annual number of suicides in Japan is 32,000. Meanwhile, we’ve saved more than 15,000 people from suicide with this website in the last three and half year.
"Iki-tech" website compile database and publish the techniques to live on: show alternatives or solutions to suicide. These techniques are obtained through exhaustive interviews to more than 200 people who overcame suicide.
We hope that this database will be more enhanced so that it could be provided to other serious issues and to be globally shared too.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
Here is an example of the media being used in a negative way. In Japan, the number of suicide increases commensurately when the mass media constantly report on crimes and suicides. Our purpose is to increase the number of solution by increasing positive news, therefore we think it is more important to focus on solution, not the problem. There are many websites dealing about suicide in Japan but there is no other website that is showing the solution simply.
“Iki-tech” is our representative project website. Here, we’ve created eight kinds of distress such as love, overwork, illness, bullying, bereavement, violence, debt, and others. To these problems there are eight categories of solution methods:
1) Literature ex) encounter a good book that give you hope to live
2) Physical ex) to physically train yourself to become stronger
3) Changing Circumstances or Residence
4) Studying ex) to find a deep enthusiasm to study, which can set your suicidal thoughts aside
5) Communication ex) to communicate and meet different people who can bring hope to you
6) Changing Job
7) Solved by Time
8) Legal Protections ex) to learn about legal protections available, such as to those in debt problems.
These methods for solution are created through interviewing to those people who also were once on the brink of committing suicide, but overcame their suicidal thoughts. This makes it easier for people to find the survival techniques that suits him/herself most.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
In Japan, when you search the word “suicide” on the Internet, you will easily find hundreds of different ways to commit suicide. We wanted our people to find the “techniques to live on” not the “techniques to commit suicide.” Hence, we put much greater importance on SEO and search engines. As a result, now when people look up “suicide” on Google, our “Iki-tech” website is shown on the first three results.
On the other hand, we made many newsworthiness performances to raise the profile of “Iki-tech”; intending to attract attention from such media as Twitter and Facebook. For example, we’ve designed 100 different types of T-shirts with words that will reduce the desire to suicide. In this event, 100 volunteers wore these shirts and literally took over the train and the city. As a result, “Iki-tech” was featured in TV shows, magazine, news paper, and received a very famous award. We succeeded in raising our profile in a very short term.
For the future, we are going to use various kinds of social media to gain more recognition and to increase access number of our blog and website.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
We already have a system called "Hot Line for Life" (provided by Federation of Inochi No Denwa,Inc.) in Japan but it’s not functioning because the line is so crowded and when people try to make a call to this hot line, they can catch the counselor only once in five calls. We also have telephone counseling by social workers but it also doesn't function enough because they can't provide solutions, they could only listen to them. On the other hand, “Iki-tech” can provide various effective solutions shared from many suicide survivors, twenty-four-hour, anytime you want.
Though, we still need to work on increasing our websites recognition because “Hot Line for Life” is more known.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
When I was working as a Marketing planner & advertising art director I was worried about a feeling I had. “Am I really contributing to this world?”
One night, I was in the office alone, and this project came up to my head. I knew that this could reform the society.
Back then, I myself was mentally worn out too. Therefore, I was able to regard this as a problem of my own. I was sure that my Project could change the world.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
Between 1/1/2008 and 11/9/2011, 15,771 people “decided to quit suicide” by viewing our “Iki-tech” website. In many cases there are close friends and families to suicide victims. We suppose that there are about 10 people deeply related to one suicide victim, and from this number we can calculate that 15,771 ×10=approximately 150,000 people did not have to suffer from psychological distress and from economic hardship.
Further out, in a country where there are 30,000 suicide victims, the effect to the GDP is said to be minus one trillion yen. Thus, when 15,000 people stopped him/ herself from committing suicide, it means that five hundred billion yen has been protected against GDP losses.
In a different project called “The Heavens Passport”, 150 thousand young people were concerned in it and made an act to do a hundred nice things to make the world better. This became a social phenomenon. As a result, we succeed to effectively control young people’s problematic behaviour.
*Reference: http://www.crs.or.jp/backno/old/No553/5532.htm
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
If we can build a system that will automatically ask for the headquarters approval, this project could be expanded in to the international arena by third party.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Increase 50 case studies about “Iki-tech (Techniques to Live On)”by utilizing social media.
Six-Month Tasks
Task 1
Design a PR strategy utilizing social media’s that has a high word-of-mouth effect such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.
Task 2
Increase three more personnel who can firmly commit in interviewing to those suicide-survivors who provide us “Iki-tech.”
Task 3
Increase two or more personnel who can rewrite and edit the contents in the website to make it into a more reader-friendly text.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Globalize Iki-tech and aim to decrease 10% of annual rate of suicide in other countries.
12-Month Tasks
Task 1
Recruit personnel who want to globalize “Iki-tech” and share the contents in their own country through this competition.
Task 2
Recruit one Int'l personnel who can make a close search of his/her country’s status quo of suicide problems, infrastructure, etc
Task 3
Manualize the process and skills we have cultivated through this project into English, so it would be easier to globalize.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
Sustainability
Explain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Government entity
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
Before we started this project, we had a great deal of anxiety toward the fact that we were going to deal with a very sensitive theme such as suicide and psychological problems. But we managed to overcome this fear by developing a strong “conviction” about making the action and to succeed in it.
There also were conflicts between other people who worked on the same issue from a different approach, but when we got to a point where we could show results, we overcame this problem too.
Though, we still have to keep working on how to handle these sensitive contents. To this problem, we recruited some more personnel and by carefully making action it is gradually moving towards resolution.
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Especially in Japan, constrained and negative communication is increasing. And we envisage that in near future, this tendency will become stronger in the mass media.
Even so, we will keep on sending out “Positive Messages” to the world to change this society with the help of those who are suffering from this constrained world.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
If there is anyone who wants to create a Positive-Media like “Iki-tech” that will focus on the solution methods, not the problem it selves, it can be expanded in any country.
Though, there is a possibility of failure if you just copy the concept. To prevent failure, we would like to make this media as an “headquarter approval system” (which would be the Japanese POSi-MEDiA) so that we can support and share the knowledge.
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
Currently, as a joint-stock-corporation POSi-MEDiA receive commission to develop a branding strategy for private companies. “Iki-tech” and other social projects are run by this profit
To expand our project, we will utilize the knowledge we earned trough these works. We will provide a problem-solving service for companies looking for a solution to help their employees who suffer from depression, and also to those who have problems peculiar to corporate managers. We will receive payment for showing solutions to those companies who have problems in handling and rehabilitating their employees with depression whose productivity are not high. Services for corporate managers will be more profitable.
Tell us about your partnerships
Iki-tech has made many collaborative events with Japanese local governments and with suicide-bereaved –family associations.
We also published some books by the offer from a publishing company.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
As a company, we will support our personnel who share the philosophy of “Positive-Media” and to those volunteers who have suffered or are still suffering from problems just like the people who visit our website have. By making this support we will expand and globalize our network.
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.).
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
“Iki-tech” is a knowledge-base of “solution methods for problems.”These “solution method” could be found in other social activities other than our project too. By generalizing and mutually sharing this knowledge we can cooperate with many other social activities.
We also create branding strategy for other companies as one of our business. Thus, we were able to effectively use the branding knowledge for cultivating “Iki-tech.” We believe that this knowledge for branding could be used as a tool to “transmit information to the society” and also turn it in to a “tool to communicate.”
With this skill and knowledge, we can cooperate for the people who can form a partnership with us. (such as raising the profile in Japan.)
Summary
Define your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
Tools for "Solution" from POSITIVE perspective, in this NEGATIVE "suffering" era
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
POSITIVE solutions for suicidal thoughts are created from 200 evidences by those who overcame suicide.
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