Active Minds: Empowering Students and Changing the Conversation about Mental Health on 300 Campuses
Location
In order to ensure a drastic change in the way we address mental health, Active Minds seeks to create and support student-run chapters of mental health awareness groups on every college campus. By 2010, it seeks to have 300 chapters across the United States.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Alison
Last Name
Malmon
Website URL
Country
United States
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Active Minds
Organization Website
Organization Phone
202-332-9595
Organization Address
2647 Connecticut Ave, NW #200; Washington, DC 20008
Organization Country
United States
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Your idea
Name Your Project
Active Minds: Empowering Students and Changing the Conversation about Mental Health on 300 Campuses
Country your work focuses on
United States
Describe Your Idea
In order to ensure a drastic change in the way we address mental health, Active Minds seeks to create and support student-run chapters of mental health awareness groups on every college campus. By 2010, it seeks to have 300 chapters across the United States.
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Active Minds is the leading student voice in mental health awareness, empowering college and university students to tell their stories, educate their peers, and work closely with clinical services to break the unnecessary stigma that surrounds mental health. As the only organization that is reaching students through students, we are engaging the next generation of advocates – the ones their friends are listening to – to truly rethink and engage in mental health, in order to support their own peer-based community.
Mental health is about story telling. Once one of us tells our story, we find that almost everyone around us has a story too. But when we don’t talk about our experiences, we find ourselves feeling extremely isolated. In order to truly improve our community’s wellbeing, we must promote an active and enlightened dialogue around mental health. Until that happens, mental health will continue to be the lonely, quiet issue that leaves too many of us without hope.
While youth-based programs in mental health are plentiful, too often they teach educators, staff, and faculty about issues that students may be facing. Rarely if ever do they actively engage students themselves, who know firsthand what the issues may be that need to be addressed, and are the first ones to know when a friend may be in need. A recent study in Texas showed that 67% of students who were suicidal told a friend before they told anyone else. Students must be a main target audience for mental health programming. And they must be the ones to tell their own stories.
The idea to expand and support Active Minds chapters across the United States will do all of the above, and will guarantee that there is a next generation of mental health advocates and professionals who WILL be the change agents we need to truly rethink and reapproach mental health.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Active Minds started as a student group in 2001 when I was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania. After the suicide of my older brother Brian the year before, I was determined that the conditions that existed that allowed him to suffer in silence at his school, and ultimately lose all hope and his life, had no place on my college campus. After searching unsuccessfully for national programs that I could bring to my campus, I created my own. Now, eight years after that first chapter began and six years into the nonprofit organization’s existence, Active Minds has 216 campus chapters and grows daily. The true testament to the impact we are having is in the incredible pace of growth we’ve seen, and through the thousands of students and their staff advisors who have become involved in this new movement of student-based mental health advocacy.
Through our small staff’s efforts in our national office, and our incredible student and staff volunteers nationwide, Active Minds has engaged more than 3,000 student advocates and reached more than 2.5 million students with our programming in the past six years, with those numbers growing every day. We have reached campuses in 40 US States, Washington, DC, Canada, and in Australia. We have been recognized for our work from the Campaign for Menta; Health Reform, American Association of University Women, and by national media such as CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, NPR, and others. Active Minds has emerged as the leading voice in student mental health advocacy.
Problem
Young adults of college age are at the most vulnerable time to be facing mental health issues. For both biological and social reasons, young adults aged 18-25 have THE HIGHEST rate of mental illness of the entire population, at 27%. Sadly, nearly half of all students report having felt so depressed in the past year it was difficult to function, and suicide is taking the lives of over 1,100 college students each year, making it the second leading cause of death for students.
However, little is being done. Students are facing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other mental health issues while in college, often for the first time – away from home, away from childhood friends, and away from typical support systems. But they are not being taught about the symptoms of issues they may be facing, they are not learning about the help that is available to them, and they are sadly, not learning that there is HOPE. Active Minds will create an environment on every campus that promotes an enlightened dialogue that helps students know what they are experiencing, that they are not alone, and that help is available.
Actions
Active Minds works diligently every day to create programming and communication tools to foster the development and support of its campus chapters. In order to reach 300 chapters, we will work to reach students at colleges and universities to make them aware of the national program; continue to educate counseling center staff about our mission to ensure their support for their campus chapters; and develop innovative and effective programming materials to ensure that developing a chapter is barrier-free, and sustaining it during the year is as simple as can be.
In addition, in order to support an additional 80+ chapters, we will need to hire a 4th Chapter Coordinator at the national office to be the 24/7 resource for those new and existing chapters, so we are working hard to raise the funding to make that happen.
Results
Through our outreach efforts, Active Minds expects that students will continue to seek information about starting an Active Minds chapter on their campus, and staff will continue to learn more about the program. We expect to garner interest in approximately one hundred new campuses in the next year which, on top of our existing 216 chapters, will allow us to have at least 300 chapters of Active Minds by 2010.
Through new communication and programming tools, we expect that Active Minds chapters will be better connected with each other and equipped to run programming on campus. Through chapter evaluations, we expect to learn that our chapters have engaged in more programming in future years than they have in the past, and report having worked with students and chapters from other campuses more so than in the past.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
In order to reach 300 chapters by 2010, we will need to outreach to potential new chapters through contact with like-minded students (found through letters to the editor and other articles in school newspapers), ads on Facebook, and continued speaking engagements by staff and students. In this first year, we will also need to hire a 4th Chapter Coordinator at the national office to support this outreach work and serve as a 24/7 resource for these new chapters.
In year two, our project will require continued financial support of our Chapter Coordinators, including funding for a 5th coordinator, and increased connectivity between the chapters through an enhanced web strategy and presence. In year 2, 300 successful Active Minds chapters will also require an expanded Leadership Institute for chapter members, including workshops on speaking publicly about mental health.
And in year 3, to truly support all 300 existing chapters, Active Minds will focus on programming so that it has ten turn-key, evaluated, complete national programs that it makes available to its chapters so that each chapter can run solely nationally-created programming, lessoning the burden on chapters that don’t want to create their own initiatives.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Active Minds is filling a need that has never been addressed in our society – giving students a voice in mental health, to truly ensure that no student feels alone, all students know where help is available, and our rising generation of leaders has more understanding and support for mental health issues than any generation in history. Because we are filling such a needed role in both mental health and young adult leadership, we do not believe that finding the students who are interested in starting chapters will be difficult for us. Our difficulty lies in supporting those who want to be effective student change agents on campus. Our biggest barrier to successfully having 300 chapters of Active Minds by 2010 is in having the capacity at our national headquarters to support the great work of our chapters, including creating ways for them to better connect with each other. We truly need to build the staff and technological capacity of our organization to be able to better predict and respond to our students’ needs. Without this increased capacity, we will not be able to have 300 successful campus-based chapters, and the students who really need it will not get this most vital form of education.
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?
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
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, to ensure the most knowledgeable next generation of leaders in mental health. And through partnerships with the National Institutes of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, we are able to ensure that the young adult voice is heard and presence is felt in their strategic planning and projects. Truly, without these partnerships, our innovative program and approach would not exist.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
The three most important actions needed to grow our organization 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.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
I was a freshman in college, a young 18-year old, when my world turned upside down. My older brother Brian, my only sibling, took his own life on March 24, 2000.
I became terrified, because I learned after his death that Brian had been experiencing signs of a mental health disorder since his freshman year of college, but only sought help for the issue in his senior year, and took his life just a year later. I also learned that although he was able to maintain a 3.8 GPA throughout his time on his Ivy League campus and become the president of the numerous activities in which he was involved, Brian's friends had indeed noticed changes in him through the years. But, not knowing what they were seeing, not knowing what to say, and truly not thinking it was their place to say anything, they didn't.
And Brian, we learned after the fact, also didn't understand what he was dealing with, that it wasn't his fault, that help was available and the earlier he sought help the more likely he would be to recover and, truly, that there was hope. So he tried to mask everything and "pull himself out of it" through his three and a half years on campus, during which we're all told is supposed to be the best time of our lives.
Thinking that life couldn't get any worse, Brian finally did seek help from his campus counseling center and took a voluntary leave of absence from school, which was the first time that my family learned anything about his struggles. But by then, Brian had truly lost hope - and, just after the four year anniversary of his first "break" and thinking that he would never regain the life he once imagined for himself, he took his own life.
It was Brian's experiences on campus, his friends' ignorance about their role in helping him, his lonliness and lack of understanding, and my recognition that Brian was definitely not the only student dealing in this way that led to my developing Active Minds on my campus in 2001. And it was the fast realization that students across the country were feeling the same pain, isolation, and implications of our society's stigma around mental health that led to the development of the nonprofit organization in 2003.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
As the founder and Executive Director of Active Minds, I am technically the social innovator behind this idea - but it is because of the incredible dedication, creativity, and ingenuity of my staff and our student volunteers that this idea has been so successful so quickly.
I majored in psychology and sociology in college, struggling to figure out what I could do with my degrees other than continue to graduate school. It wasn't until I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, just three years after my brother took his life, that I realized that I could make my passion and the program I had devoted my time to at Penn, my work. Upon graduating I spent a few months weighing the options for Active Minds, and decided to turn down the opportunities to make Active Minds a program within larger organizations, and instead keep it an independent organization so that the student voice in mental health truly was never lost. I have dedicated all of my time since graduation to Active Minds, and it has been my full time job since. Though it started in my bedroom in my shared apartment, and I had no salary for the organization's first year, I knew it would be a success. Just six years later, I am so proud of the work Active Minds has achieved, so thankful of the support we continue to garner, and so inspired by the dedication and intelligence of my staff and our volunteers. Though I wish every day that Brian was still with me, I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
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Comments
Wow. What an organization you have created for college students concerned with mental health! I enjoyed reading about your work both in your entry and on your website.
In your entry, you mention the need to expand your technological capability so that you can better connect chapters to each other. What would that look like? I would like to better understand the specific kinds of needs you have here.
-- Katherine Stone, Postpartum Progress, http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com
Thanks for your thoughts, Katherine!
The technology I think we'd need (knowing that, in a year or two capacity and needs may look very different!), is a more robust system for chapters to be able to share ideas and be connected. I envision a system where our members can enter their programs into a program bank, and be able to search and comment by type of program, particular audience reached, specific mental health issue(s) discussed, type of school that hosted the program, etc. With a robust system like this and more, I know that our students will be able to enhance their own programs and be able to utilize each other's experiences to continue to come up with better, more effective, and even more innovative programming.
We also continue to search for ways to virtually connect our students so they feel like they are, truly, part of a movement. We have an annual conference that brings together more than 300 Active Minds students, staff, and supporters every year - and brings with it more energy and excitement than any of us could imagine. I would really like to extend that excitement throughout the year, when everyone is on his/her own campuses, but still truly feels connected. The technology we have discussed that could provide this includes video conferencing, and a Facebook-like app that gives each member a face and a voice even online.
Alison's leadership has not only helped give a voice to those who are often silenced, she is now creating a tipping point of change to help all of realize that mental health affects us all. As a former advisor for an Active Minds chapter, I can say that this organization is instrumental in empowering students at the grassroots and engaging those in positions of power to create sustaining change.
I wish you the best, Alison with this award and with all that you are doing for students across the country.
Warm regards,
Sally Spencer-Thomas, Executive Director for the Carson J Spencer Foundation http://www.PeoplePreventSuicide.org
On November 20, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“Fabulous idea! What I really liked was the potential to use the power of the students and peer groups to change stigma, and reduce discrimination of people who have mental health issues on campus. I would really like to learn more about what the connections are to the campus mental health services. Are you able to refer people to professionals?”
“I think it’s a great idea to have chapters on college campuses to make people aware of mental health issues. Would you mind providing some more evidence of impact, and how your initiative has made a difference in the lives of people who are suffering from major mental health issues? While you plan on expanding broadly, I would suggest you build out the strength of the implementation that you already have so that you have a stronger case for scaling. Also, since one person started this initiative, what happens when that person moves on? Is there the community buy-in and leadership training to ensure this initiative is successful and sustainable in the long run? Overall, this idea has a lot of promise.”
- Changemakers Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing Judges
Many thanks for the constructive feedback. A few answers to the comments/questions:
1) Active Minds chapters work hand-in-hand with the on-campus mental health resources. All of our chapters are required to have advisors on campus, and many of them find their advisor within the counseling center. Even those that don't, secure information from the center to advertise at events, during freshman orientation, etc. We like to say that Active Minds serves as the Outreach Arm of the university counseling services, letting clinicians spend their time on student visits and making outreach that much more effective because it comes from students themselves. Active Minds and the Association of University and College Counseling Directors (AUCCCD) has a very close relationship.
2)I'd be happy to provide more evidence of impact. It comes in a few different forms, including the testimonials on our website (www.activeminds.org), but also through some quotes we've compiled over the years. Such quotes include "Active Minds has provided me, and countless others whose stories remain untold, with a vehicle through which to effect change. The organization has given us a reason to be optimistic again" from a member of Active Minds at Brown University and the following quote which was posted on a student's Facebook page just a month ago: "Matthew O. knows that Active Minds has saved at least one life: My life was saved by the knowledge and encouragement that Active Minds has given me to help others with. I know now and understand what needs to be done to save another life. Posted: October 22, 2009"
Regarding expansion, I certainly understand the suggestion to expand using the strength of implementation we already have. In that vein, we continue to work to strengthen our existing chapters and, very importantly, connect chapters so that they support each other regardless of how recently they've been started. We continue to learn from our chapters at community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), technical schools, and others, to help the development of chapters at those types of schools moving forward. So we continue to learn and perfect in order to grow most effectively.
And in terms of long-term sustainability, we have a very active Board of Directors of 13; a National Advisory Committee of 16; and a Student Advisory Committee of 15; in addition to a full-time staff of 5, so have many many invested, engaged, and intelligent folks leading Active Minds. As founder and Executive Director, I spend more time on the road serving as the 'face' of the organization than working on programming, which really means that our success and sustainability is feasible in the long run with or without me.
Thank you for the helpful feedback!
Alison Malmon