We are delighted to share a blog written by team Social Outreach for Students, from The Columbus School who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2019-20 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
We are finally going to create a positive impact in society through something as easy as spreading awareness of mental health and helping people struggling with this open up.
Project Overview
Our project is about spreading awareness of mental health. We were really intrigued about why society considers mental health a type of sickness or think that people that suffer from these are just seeking for attention.
Our project’s main goal to spread awareness about what mental illness really is and also to be able to achieve a decrease in depression and suicide rates in schools. We plan to help students silenced by society to speak up and not be ashamed of their feelings. We plan on getting these students the help they need. We will do this by opening spaces in which we can teach and/or help by demystifying a complex topic like this one and making people leave stereotypes behind.
We want our program to be something that everyone can participate in and eliminate all shame and embarrassment this society has placed on us about mental health. Our project will keep those students who want, anonymous. That way the students can feel safer and more confident when asking for advice. We want every student to be prepared for life after school and have the social skills to be successful.
Our project will make sure all students feel comfortable and that the way will teach, inform, support, and provide help will not trigger any bad feelings. We will be very cautious about everything. Our priority is the safety and well being of the students. That is why professionals will be looking over and advising on our project. They will guide us in the correct way to achieve our goal.
Our Journey
We have learned a lot from this project we started with a base idea that has nothing to do with what we have achieved we didn’t even expect to get an answer from one of our mentors since that we noticed that our idea was good and not just an idea. We have learned many important skills in the development of the project.
Our biggest challenge in this project is the way we approach the students because we have to do it in a way where they feel comfortable talking about their feelings and open up. I think the most important skill we have strengthened is communication because we are going to spread awareness to students of all ages. We have learned about ourselves that we can really make a change in the world through very simple actions. That through the appropriate process, we can help many struggling people that need our help.
The Next Chapter
We are planning to continue this project for many years. First, we want to start the project in our school but if it has a sustainable and positive impact on society we are planning on spreading it to not only Colombia but the world. Eventually, we hope that through education of mental health we can convince other people to join and help with our project. We are already working with the school’s board of directives and counselors to implement this in our school. We will develop a system so students feel comfortable opening up and if they want they could do it anonymously.
The 2019-20 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2020. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
