The mini grant program is a “packaged” version of our suicide prevention and mental health curriculum delivered in the form of an Annual Film Contest. Participating groups apply for this program and receive educational resources about mental health and suicide prevention plus personalized support for filmmaking. Students in the mini grant program apply lessons from the Youth Creating Change curriculum to create their own mental health and/or suicide prevention film projects. Mini grant teams also plan and host a youth-led awareness event tied to either mental health, suicide prevention, or both, at which their films are screened. Through participation in the mini grant program and use of the curriculum, groups receive funding that can be used to support filmmaking, their awareness event, or other activities that support youth wellness.
A Self-Care Event:
Art Walk and Sensory Garden
All Souls World Language Catholic School hosted an on-campus, outdoor art gallery titled “Hope, Help, Heal” that students, their families, and community members could walk through for one afternoon. Art pieces created by 6-8th grade students included painted works about expressing emotions, screenings of short films about mental health, chalk artwork with positive affirmations and recreations of famous paintings, musical performances, and a large centerpiece installation with masks that each student created earlier in the school year. Throughout the outdoor gallery space were tables with resources about mental health and suicide prevention as well as areas for self-care, including a yoga station, a sensory garden, and a green ribbon tree activity. You can watch a recap video of the event here: https://vimeo.com/853463723.
Getting the whole school involved with door decorating!
All grades at Ready Springs K-8 School received weekly lessons on mental health and suicide prevention over the course of the month. Their month culminated in a door decorating contest, in which each classroom created a design around suicide prevention, mental health, or coping skills and every student contributed a piece to their door. Every classroom then had strategies, resources, and messages of hope for students, teachers, and parents to look at as they walked around campus.
Mental health, LGBTQ health, and allyship
The Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) from Sage Creek High School expanded their awareness event from a day to a week, with guest speakers throughout the week that gave talks about how to be ally and the importance of allyship to the LGBTQ+ community, especially for student wellbeing. Directing Change films about mental health and suicide prevention within the LGBTQ community were screened mid-week, which was the day with the biggest turnout (double the number of students showing up than previous days!). Goody bags with mental health journals were also given out to those who had consistently shown up during the week. They ended the celebration with a game day on Friday, promoting knowledge about LGBTQ+ terms and history.
An interactive mural… and a permanent mural!
Oakdale Junior High School Alliance Club held a Mental Health Awareness Day on campus that they called “Celebrate Your Reasons for Living.” The event included an interactive post-it note mural project, an art show, face painting, screenings of student suicide prevention ¬films, and games. The interactive mural asked youth to write down their reasons for living on post-it notes and create a mural out of the different colored post-its. In addition, community organizations and their local high school joined the event and provided resources for students. At the end of the month, the Alliance Club also painted a permanent mural on their campus to share a message of inclusion and connection for future students.
A Local Movie Theater Screening Event
Johansen High School hosted their first Film Fest at a local movie theater. Friends and families joined to watch and experience the Johansen High School Video Arts student-produced short films for Directing Change. Admission was free and over 150 people joined the event. Materials provided by the Directing Change team were provided to visitors at the movie theatre entrance. Students were thrilled to see their films on the big screen, and to share the films with others out in the community!