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.
Break-Out Sessions tailored to each of the following groups, that your college/university/conference may choose to incorporate (on top of the Rally above). You may choose to do one, some, or all of the following break out sessions, to ensure messages are being re-enforced and specific topic areas are covered with the entire school community, for: 1) Professors and/or Coaches, 2) Athletic Directors and College Administrators, 3) Counseling Center Staff and/or Sports Psych Staff, 4) Deeper Dive with Specific Student Groups.
#SameHere Mental Health Scale implemented across your campus. Mental Health lives on a “continuum,” or in simpler words, a “scale” that stretches from “Thriving” to “Sinking.” It’s a fluid scale that everyone in the world lives and moves on, at different points in their lives (or even their days, weeks, months, etc.). By understanding mental health in this broader context (broader than what we traditionally hear about: “1 in 5 with mental illness,” specifically), we can better educate every group we speak with about how mental health does in fact apply to them, their life experience, lifestyle, and even genetics. It also allows us to bring groups together around basic concepts and common language that can apply to everyone. Join thousands of other colleges and classrooms around the world and access options for the #SameHere Scale Apps or large #SameHere Scale visuals for your campus.
Daily Release & Rewiring Exercise taught to a group of Behavioral Health/Counseling Staff, Administrator, and Student Leaders (selected by each college/university) for them champion and implement for a few minutes per day within their group in the school population to reduce stress, elevate moods, and raise overall performance. We call these exercises “STARR” Exercises (Stress & Trauma, Active Release & Rewiring). We deliver training for these types of exercises directly with your school community. We also have STARR Exercise Courses, for leaders in your group to learn directly, in a self-paced format from the top experts in mind/body science and modalities. You can even access STARR Exercise cards before we begin to work together. Want to take it to the next step? We help colleges build STARR Exercise “Gym for the Brain” rooms.
#SameHere Student-Led Mental Health Clubs where we work with a group of students (whether they be part of the SAAC group or others), as well as a board of at least one professor/administrator. Your student leaders are your biggest advocates for change, on an on-going, daily basis. We work with your students (based on where they may already be at in the process of developing a club), on things like: empowering name development (e.g., #OwnYour Roar for the Towson Tigers), to social media set-ups and content to keep students around campus engaged, to a cadence of weekly or monthly activities that can be coordinated to make sure mental health programs are available to students. We also have relationships with a number of technology an app providers we make introductions to, who can help set up programs like anonymous peer-to-peer chat rooms, so that everyone feels like they have someone they can talk to without judgement, as a bridge to traditional therapy.
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.