#Samehere Sit-Downs

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Fostering Campus-wide Mental Health Awareness

Customized Sit-Downs for Universities

#SameHere Sit-Down programs are designed for colleges, universities, and conferences holding annual meetings. While many of our programs have focused on the mental health of student athletes, often in collaboration with athletic departments or counseling centers, the content is relevant to all types of students and staff, from arts and music departments to general studies. Programs have been delivered to groups ranging from as small as 50 to as large as 2,000 participants. We named these programs “Sit-Downs” based on feedback from campus partners, who highlighted the challenge of getting students to sit together for an extended time to focus on this vital topic, given the busy nature of campus life.

Mental Health for All

Building a Continuum of Care

By collaborating with your campus organizers, we help change (or build on) your campus’ culture, together.  The hallmark of the #SameHere message is that it takes a complication and often misunderstood topic, and shares it in a way that speaks to “real world” applications.  We stress that mental health is a combination of many factors including life experiences and challenges, traumatic and stressful events, and genetics. We position mental health as something that lives on a continuum that impacts all of us, “5 in 5” to varying degrees, at varying levels, throughout our lives.  A key focus is also the encouragement of proactively looking at our mental health, to take care of ourselves before problems may arise, just like we do with our physical health. This particular concept resonates strongly with student athletes.

Be a Part of the Change

#SameHere Foundational Roadmap

From world-class athletes to leading researchers, our alliance members share their stories as proof that mental health impacts everyone, no matter their accolades or status. 

Lay the Culture Foundation

Establish Common Language

Understand the Science

Identify Potential Obstacles

Learn The STARR Excercises

Balance, Awareness, and Prevention

Empowering Students Through Mental Health Education

The Movement and its Alliance recognizes the challenges of addressing stress and mental health in colleges and universities, especially for students balancing multiple activities in teams and clubs. This program focuses on mental health awareness, prevention, education, and positive culture development through the following initiatives:

Proactive Mental Health for Students

Program Overview

The Movement and its Alliance recognizes the challenges of addressing stress and mental health in colleges and universities, especially for students balancing multiple activities in teams and clubs.

#SameHere Sit-Down Culture Rally with the entire community of students you are hoping to reach, led by members of The Alliance who share their own stories of overcoming life’s challenges, and how they ended up asking for help – learning practices and healthy living styles that changed their lives.  The concept of #SameHere (how “5 in 5” of us face challenges and we ALL have a story) is woven in as a theme throughout the two-hour session. It provides students and staff with relate-able comforting back-stories to introduce this powerful message. The Alliance Members shares their own personal mental health challenges, to show that – we all go through obstacles in life, even those who appear to “have it all,” and therefore it’s OK to ask for help; even the strongest among us do.  To hold attention and keep the session flowing, these Sit-Downs have “10-elements” that serve as a framework, but all of the elements are fully customizable based on your group’s needs. Those elements turn out to be an amalgamation of sports meets pop culture, meets vulnerable story-sharing, meets stress and trauma education, meets examples of positive coping mechanisms and practices. The end result is an interactive Q & A session, where your students feel a part of the program, willing to open up and work with the facilitators, to crush stigmas and attack important questions. We also work with your college or university to tie-in key message points and even important campus resources/stakeholders, so that we are re-enforcing your important messages.

The concept of #SameHere—the idea that "5 in 5" of us face challenges and that we all have a story—is woven throughout the assembly. This theme helps students and staff relate to each other and introduces a powerful, comforting message.

The assembly encourages schools to integrate this concept into their culture, proactively addressing students' mental health needs. Topics range from taking a break in class to managing challenging interactions in the schoolyard, and even feeling more comfortable asking to speak with the school’s mental health professional.

The Alliance member openly shares their own personal mental health struggles, demonstrating that everyone faces obstacles in life, and that it’s OK to ask for help. These assemblies challenge the common misconception that students who visit a counselor, take a break, or seek help are "weak." By doing so, they help normalize mental health care and promote a culture of support within the school community.

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Supporting Schools Nationwide

Tailored Programs for Universities

#SameHere Sit-Downs programs can be implemented with all of the activation points mentioned above, or colleges, universities, and conferences have the flexibility to choose which sessions, beyond the Rally, are most relevant and applicable to their needs. We’ve worked with institutions of all sizes, from Richmond and JMU to USC, Cornell, and Indiana. We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with you.

Another player on the team came to seem me about a mental health issue because of your talk!! ...you are making a difference.
Anonymous
I wanted to reach out and thank you again for speaking to the athletic department as well as the student body yesterday at Loyola University Chicago. What you said really hit home for me. I guess I didn’t realize how bad my symptoms were getting because I was refusing to acknowledge them. I reached out to talk to someone this morning and listening to {you} speak was a big part of that. Thank you so much.
LeRon Norton
After {seeing} your presentation at West Chester University, it got me to go and talk to my athletic training professor about what I was going through. I now am talking to that same professor about trying to start a student alliance at WCU. Thank you for everything you guys do.
Anonymous
We had a football player who got a concussion in the conference championship game and has been having some pretty severe emotional issues and has been on a suicide crisis plan since the weekend. He told me yesterday that the We’re All A Little Crazy talk helped him recognize what was going on when he started having dark thoughts. He knew to reach out and talk, and we were able to get a support team around him so quickly because of it.
Anonymous
Thank you so much for coming! This was an unforgettable experience for us and we wish you luck on the rest of your tour.
Cornell Minds Matter
As a student athlete of NIU, I want to thank you for coming and talking to our university. I had a friend commit suicide my sophomore year of high school. It was some of the darkest times for me and I wish I had a program like this talk to me when I was going through the darkest stage of my life.
Anonymous
This was the best content and authenticity I’ve ever heard regarding wellness and mental injury. Mental health IS a spectrum affecting us all
Anonymous