On April 19, young people here and around the U.S. will gather friends around a cell phone for Text, Talk, Act, a guided, face-to-face discussion about mental health. Locally, Creating Community Solutions-KC and its partners are encouraging conversations for people under 18, and for young adults 18-24.
Young people under 18
If you work with or know young people, please consider encouraging them to participate in Text, Talk, Act. It’s easy, fun, and young people say that it makes a difference in their knowledge about mental health and their readiness to help a friend. This information packet can be used in schools, agencies, churches or neighborhoods. For example, after reading the materials, the administration at Turner High School committed to engage all 1,200 students in this productive conversation about mental health.
Here are the basics:
When: 7-10 p.m., Tuesday, April 19, 2016. (Arrive any time between 7 and 9:15 for a conversation that takes about 60 minutes.)
Where: The Convocation Center on the Rockhurst University campus, near 52nd and Virginia, just east of Troost Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri.
Cost: The event is FREE and open to anyone 18-24. We’ll be serving pizza and cookies.
RSVP: Visit Facebook to register
Young adults 18-24
We invite any young adult to experience Text, Talk, Act at an event the evening of Tuesday, April 19, on the Rockhurst campus. CCS-KC is partnering with Rockhurst University’s Active Minds chapter and reStart, Inc., to make Text, Talk, Act available to young adults. Please consider sharing this one-page flyer/poster with young adults.
What’s so special about Text, Talk, Act?
Since 2014, more than 40,000 young people in all 50 states have met in dorm rooms, kitchens, cafes and classrooms to discuss why mental health is important, how to care for it, and how to help a friend in need.
Text, Talk, Act is a project of Creating Community Solutions, the national dialogue on mental health. The local partners have heard directly from young people about how hard it is to talk about their challenges and how demoralizing stigma can be. Engaging any and all young people in discussion about mental health recognizes that we all have hard times, and we all need and can give help. And data show it is working.
Young people have said that Text, Talk, Act is fun, flexible, easy, convenient, and leads to meaningful conversations that build peer understanding and support. More than 90 percent of respondents to follow-up surveys report an increase in understanding and more than 65 percent of survey respondents report an increase in their level of comfort in talking about mental health.
What happens April 19 at Rockhurst?
At 7 p.m., we’ll kick off the evening and by 7:15 p.m., students will be organized into small groups of 3-5 students. They can choose to sit with friends or with people they don’t know. Each group will have a cell phone that they can use to download a series of text messages that guide the group through a 45-minute conversation. The text messages include videos, social media interactions, polling questions and discussion questions. Young adults can arrive any time between 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Volunteers will make sure that everyone who shows up is placed in a group and included in a conversation.
For more information about Text, Talk, Act, visit our website.. Please contact Jennifer Wilding at if you would like more information about what is going on in metro KC.
CATEGORIES
Behavioral Health Care
