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Meet the Revolution: Jack.org University of Alberta
Meet the Revolution: Jack.org University of Alberta

Meet the Revolution: Jack.org University of Alberta

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Meet a chapter that’s prioritizing inclusion.

What obstacles does your chapter work to dismantle?

At Jack.org UAlberta, we work to dismantle multiple barriers within our community. One being the fact that many groups of people have not been educated about mental health and therefore may not see the importance of receiving that education. There are many reasons for folks to not see this importance, from stigma to cultural barriers, etc. As well, often in mental health campaigns certain equity seeking groups can be excluded from the conversation, when in fact everyone should be included in these discussions.

What is your group doing to dismantle them?

We’ve been putting on unique, creative events to engage excluded groups. We do this by incorporating mental health conversations into existing successful events; this helps us make our events different from the typical “mental health” events.  This also allows us to reach more people outside of the “mental health” sphere. This year, for example, we organized a debate night and a trivia night that engaged students in thoughtful discussions about mental health who would not have normally been involved in these conversations.

Collaboration has been another effective way for us to effectively engage different groups in the conversation. This year, both Chapter Leads led a mental health workshop for the Council of Advancement of African Canadians. By continuing to operate in new spaces and collaborate with various groups, we will continue to educate the UAlberta community and the larger community about mental health.

What impact have you had at your school?

Several university organizations, committees, and student groups have expressed interest in collaborating with us. This has also built connections and a network for us which allows us to further amplify our message. We usually accept, and this way we’ve reached several students and student groups with events like a pop-up tea party, an engineering faculty de-stress event, and “Outrun The Stigma” - a run for mental health. In the past few years, we have had 1000s of conversations about mental health. We had a large turnout at our Debate, which sparked lots of conversation around the topic of mental health and social media.