Impact Overview
In terms of recruitment, in the first semester, we participated in the Leadership Pillar Orientation by speaking about our initiative and the Lead Forward Program to a group of Honors College Students. We also attended the involvement fair and tabling in the innovation forum at the Honors College. Here, we passed out stickers and flyers with a QR code interest form to recruit members. 17 students filled out the interest form. Our initial Zoom meeting had 3 members in attendance. We also had a “Cookies and Crafts” callout Meeting to encourage membership which had 14 members in attendance. Throughout the second semester, we hosted 5 events and 3 meetings which solidified 8 people’s choice in signing a membership form and agreeing to attend at least one event per month and helping with event-planning where needed. Next year, we intend to implement a leadership team (consisting of president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, outreach, and media) to which members can apply to through an online form.
As for events, we hosted a total of 8 events and 3 meetings. Our “Cookies and Crafts” Call-Out Meeting, hosted on November 9th, 2023, yielded 14 attendees and featured adult coloring books and Insomnia cookies. Our “Watercolor and Snacks” event, in conjunction with Sophie Cole’s Tea-Making Event, held on November 30th, 2023, yielded 15-20 participants, and featured water coloring and doodling (supported by research done by Sigmund Freud. Our “Cool off with Creativity and Crafts” event, held on December 5, 2023, yielded 8 attendees and consisted of snowflake-making, new year goal-setting, and cookies with hot chocolate. Starting strong in the second semester, our “Paint your Story” event co-hosted with Tiffany Botsford-Samuels from CARE yielded 20-25 participants and featured record-painting and Baked by Brittany cookies with a focus on healthy relationships. Our “Building Balance” event with PSG was hosted on March 1st for Mental Health Action Week and this was our most attended event with 40-50 attendees. This event consisted of LEGO-building and Jimmy Johns with was supported with research done by Abraham Maslow). During Dr. Kaimal’s campus visit, we co-hosted a workshop focused identity through mask-making (on March 19, 20 participants). On March 28, we hosted a workshop to create a piece for CARE’s art show for domestic and sexual violence, at which 5 people attended. Lastly, we hosted an event with Boilermaker Support Network on April 22 for stress relief before finals week, at which 4 people attended. Although attendance at our events decreased toward the end of the semester, we are confident that the Be-Involved Fair and Honors Pillar Orientation in August will spark an influx of attendees and inspire students to join our organization.
As for stakeholders, we currently have 8: CARE (Tiffany Botsford Samuels), PSG, JMHC, Boilermaker Support Network, Dr. Kaimal, Ellen Vogel, Manasseh Mullet, and Dr. Adam Watkins. Ellen Vogel and Manasseh Mullet are members of our professional advisory board and they held initiation power for our project, giving us advice in August and shaping our origin. Dr. Watkins and CARE have held strong maintenance power, as they have continuously shown their support for our initiative. JMHC has been a stakeholder that we leverage the most utility/resources out of. Not only have they provided us with the money we need through the grant, but they have also mentored us through a fellowship course and provided us with a space to hold our events. In the near future, we hope to establish a relationship with NAMI Purdue, College Mentors for Kids, and a few organizations outside of Purdue such as MHA Wabash Valley and the YWCA of Greater Lafayette. We are hopeful that, with our existing relationships and the addition of a few more, we will increase our impact.
As for goals, we created a “30/60/90” goals sheet at the beginning of each semester and a “SMART goals” sheet at the beginning of the second semester. A few of our biggest goals for the first semester were to put together a professional advisory board, establish a biweekly meeting time, and host a workshop by the end of the semester. By the end of the fall semester, we had two active members on our professional advisory board, designated Thursday evenings at 7pm as our biweekly meeting time, and successfully planned and executed 3 events. At the beginning of the second semester, our biggest goals were the creation of a membership contract (in which at least 5 members sign), execution of a MHAW event (with at least 20 people in attendance), and host a workshop with Dr. Kaimal. We have had 8 people sign our membership contract, we had 40-50 people attend the MHAW event and our workshop with Dr. Kaimal was successful with very positive feedback from Dr. Kaimal about her experience with us. Below is an example of one of our SMART goals that we created back in February.
We had 20-25 attendees, 7 responses to a satisfaction survey, and a positive satisfaction survey (see figure 2 and 3 below) from Tiffany (as discussed in section 2). We designed a flyer, posted it in at least 4 locations (including our Instagram), and purchased the necessary materials in a timely manner. “Paint your Story” is a strong example of our success as an organization.
Impact Story
I have a strong friendship with a student who is from my hometown. Our friendship is based largely on empathy; similar to myself, she has faced struggles adjusting to college. She has confided in me struggles with her mental health while she has been at school, away from her family. She also expressed her struggle in finding an outlet where she can cope outside of the academic and social setting. Like many others, she told me she is intimated to reach out to CAPS. I recommended Arts for the Heart to her and told her about our upcoming event: “Paint your Story.” For me, this wasn’t an elevator pitch. I had a deep connection with this student and knew that self-expression could have a real and lasting impact on her mental health, knowing her as a person. Not only did she want to support me as a friend by attending the event, she felt as though painting would help her escape her stress for an hour or two. After the conclusion of this event, I asked her about her experience. She told me, “I really enjoyed it. Being provided the materials and the space received a lot of the initial stress for me. Once I looked at the clock, an hour had passed and I didn’t even notice.” Although she didn’t necessarily consider herself an artist, when asked if she experienced stress relief from the workshop, she said “definitely.” Like other attendees of this event, she felt that it enriched her day and gave her a sense of groundedness in her busy daily life. Seeing her paint her record, laughing with those sitting next to her, brought me great joy. Knowing that I personally would have an impact on her made me feel extremely fulfilled. I hope to have a similar effect on more students in the future throughout my journey as a social impact leader.