It can be hard to feel the needle move when it comes to mental health education and advocacy. Are people better educated about mental health and more willing to ask for help? Are people better able to look out for and support those around them? Are systems evolving at the pace we need? Are young people able to get the help they deserve? We have a long road to walk as a community.
We need to be able to measure progress. At Jack.org, we measure, evaluate, and iterate everything we do. At every stage of our programming, we ask young people: Is this working? What could be better? Feedback from our young leaders shows us where our programming needs to go next. We build, test, implement, iterate, and start all over again, if needed.
If we can’t feel and measure our impact, we ask why and then find a more effective way. It's a long road. But we have a compass, and we’re headed in the right direction.
"We were very impressed by the Jack Talk we received to kick off Mental Health Week. It was a great way to engage a variety of students and educate them on many aspects of mental health and illness, as well as encourage them to reach out if they need support! We hope to have another Jack Talk next year as it was a huge hit!!!"
Jessica Ambrose, Charles P Allen High School NS
“Thrive was a Chapter initiative four years ago. Now it has become a campus-wide event, led by our Chapter team. The entire campus gets behind mental health twice a year now. And we made that happen.”
Bryan Young, University of Winnipeg Jack Chapter
"The things that Jack.org is involved in are so, so very important. It's exciting to see what has been done, and what will continue to be done. I'm thankful for this experience, and I plan to stay involved after today. Thank you!"
Participant at the Memorial University of Newfoundland (Grenfell) Summit
