Zero Reasons Why ICT Advisory Board Meeting Notes
August 21, 2023, 4:30-6:00, Rhatigan Student Center
For our first board meeting of the year, we began our time discussing the expectations for board members. Each board member is expected to attend every board meeting they can, facilitate one in-school event per semester, attend and assist with one community convening per semester, be willing to appear on camera and potentially talk to the media and assist with community partner events as available.
Discussion: Goals for the Year
We spent our time together sharing what we hope to accomplish on the campaign this year. Our goals can be broken down into two main categories: Community Engagement and School Engagement with the following areas of emphasis:
- In-School Events
- Advocacy Day
- Yellowout Games
- Middle School Committee
- Fall Convening Promotion
- Campaign Recrutiment
Community Engagement
Everyone agreed that we should do more events in the community this year. Our goal will be to hold one community event per semester (such as a story day in the Fall and a larger community-wide in the Spring) and research community events that would let us set up a table, such as 5k fundraisers and resource fairs.
We also discussed the possibility of engaging with the board of county commissioners, school district elections, and reaching out to local government officials to share our hopes from mental health resources and suicide prevention in Sedgwick County. In addition to engaging with local government officials, we began planning for Mental Health Advocacy in Topeka, which will take place in March at a date that is TBD. We agreed that prior to Advocacy Day we will want to research bills being voted on that affect teen mental health and suicide prevention and schedule meetings with state legislators who would be sympathetic to our work.
In-School Engagement
For in-school engagement, we decided to prioritize scheduling one lunch hour in-school event this per semester in each of the schools represented on the Mental Health Advisory Board. These events include Banner Day, Take It or Leave It, Snapshots of Support, and a Mental Health Quiz. Each school can decide which event they would like to do. Amy and Davis will work to contact school officials to schedule events – mentioning board members by name to their respective schools. Board members will also be asked to reach out to school officials directly about scheduling events.
In addition to these smaller in-school events, we decided to focus on hosting a “yellowout” at an athletic event during the year. During yellowouts, fans in the student section will wear attire that brings attention to the campaign, typically a yellow shirt, yellow bandana, or ZRW branded shirt. Due to the time required to schedule a yellowout, we recommend planning to hold this event during a basketball game in the winter rather than a football game during the fall. It needs to be determined if we want to hand out bandanas or ZRW t-shirts. If we opt for ZRW t-shirts, we will need to plan fundraisers to raise money for the shirts. Planning for these events should begin happening ASAP and will include contacting the AD of a school and whoever is involved, with planning themes/spirit days for games, typically STUCO. Board Members can work with Amy and Davis to plan yellowout events.
Finally, we ended our time with everyone committing to ask one male friend to attend next month’s meeting in an effort to combat the stigma males face when it comes to mental health.
Action items to be completed by next meeting:
- Reach out to a school official about your school hosting an in-school event
- Invite at least one male friend to next month’s meeting and encourage them to be involved with the campaign throughout the year
- Contact STUCO or other necessary group about the possibility of having a yellowout game in the winter
NEXT BOARD MEETING: Monday, September 11, 4:30-6p, Rhatigan Student Center, Room 262