The Boys and Girls Home of Oklahoma City recently announced a capital campaign to raise money for mental health research. The campaign is made possible by Rob Straus and Needham Bank. Both companies have made lead gifts to the campaign. Needham is a financial institution that has long been a supporter of mental health research. The app was developed in part to help individuals make behavioural changes. It has also garnered widespread attention thanks to its new ‘Limitless’ advertising campaign.
Capital campaign for Boys and Girls Home
The state of Cincinnati’s mental health service system is in dire need of a new home for children and teens who have been impacted by trauma, substance abuse. The current Boys and Girls Home facility, located at 2101 Court Street, is aging and in need of renovation and expansion. The capital campaign is working to raise $8,500,000 to renovate the facility and move it to 1551 Indian Hills Drive. The new facility will improve the home’s ability to provide life-changing services, address the stigma associated with mental health services, and support the stabilization of lives.
The Fox Valley Boys and Girls Clubs opened their doors in 1998 and currently serve up to 15,000 youth in the community. The Clubs offer youth development programming, mental health services and a Home Base program for at-risk youth. They also provide educational support through the STAR initiative and provide truancy intervention services. This community support is vital to the development of children in our area. Whether they’re struggling with depression, learning a new language, or navigating their first day of school, the Clubs can provide them with a safe and healthy place to be.
Fundraising for Mount Sinai’s “Limitless” campaign
The Limitless campaign aims to increase public awareness about Mount Sinai’s integrated health system, which includes eight hospitals, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and 400 ambulatory facilities. The campaign has raised more than half of its $2 billion goal in the nucleus phase, which ran from 2017 to 2020. The total has already surpassed expectations and is far ahead of its initial goal.
The Campaign will also help attract top researchers, physicians and students to Mount Sinai. Through additional support, discoveries will move faster from the laboratory to the patient bedside. The additional funding will help speed up scientific investigations, leading to groundbreaking discoveries in cancer, brain disease and other devastating diseases. It will also help Mount Sinai recruit more talented and diverse researchers, doctors and medical students, and advance its mission to improve patient care.
App to help individuals make behavioural changes
The campaign aims to improve recognition of mental health symptoms, encourage people to seek help, and provide immediate strategies to improve their mental well-being. The campaign’s content was promoted through social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, from April to June 2020. Its preliminary analysis shows that the app can be a practical tool for changing behavioural patterns. The campaign’s aims are consistent with the overall aim of the project.
The effectiveness of m-health apps has been examined in several studies, but only a handful are based on rigorous science. While these interventions have shown that mobile apps can reduce anxiety and depression in some people, the average sample size remains under one hundred per arm. Moreover, very few trials have addressed the efficacy of mental health apps for young people. Thus, this trial will be the first fully powered definitive trial of an m-health app for well-being promotion among young people.
Oklahoma City’s capital campaign for mental illness
MAPS 4, Oklahoma City’s capital campaign for mental illness, is a transformational project spanning $40 million in funding. The campaign will fund two new mental health crisis centers, a restoration center, methamphetamine detox, substance abuse services, and emergency housing for people impacted by mental illness and homelessness. All project operational costs would be paid for through non-City sources. MAPS 4 is the result of decades of community organizing and grassroots fundraising to improve the lives of people impacted by substance abuse and homelessness.
The first phase of the campaign will be spent on purchasing housing properties. Funds from the campaign will also be used to provide crisis hotlines and educational programs for individuals living with mental illness and homelessness. During the initial capital campaign, the Association bought eight housing properties and held the inaugural Zarrow Mental Health Symposium, which educated 150 attendees. The first Recovery Services program, Creating Connections, empowers participants to participate in community life and utilize the recovery support model to foster social inclusion.
The campaign has already committed nearly $1 million in funding. Among its other awards are a $100,000 grant to the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics to create a primary care clinic for homeless people in the county. Another $100,000 grant to The Education and Employment Ministry to support reentry services for formerly incarcerated individuals. Other recipients include the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce for education initiatives, including KIPP Reach Academy, and the Tulsa Legacy Charter School for bilingual paraprofessionals in the city.
The Well Beings tour will feature a variety of media partners, including local public media, Otsuka, Kaiser Permanente, Bank of America, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and One Mind. The project will culminate in a four-hour documentary, directed by Erik Ewers Brother Productions and executive produced by Ken Burns. Once the tour is complete, the campaign will tour the country, bringing awareness to mental illness and the resources needed to combat it.