February, 2009
Online Youth Mental Health Promotion Campaign, first of its kind!
Media Release prepared by youth participants of the Get Real NationWide Campaign with
mindyourmind.ca . They are Erin 15, Todd 21, Jeanie 15, Meagan 22, Alex 18, Capp 24, Caroline 17,
Erica 21, Iris 20, Sharon 22, and Morgan 16
For Immediate Release:
We are eleven Canadian youth from across the country, who have never met face to face but have
come together online to complete a ground breaking national mental health promotion campaign
designed to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues.
We are from Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Yukon, British Columbia,
Alberta, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. We are a diverse group of young people with a
simple but daring common goal; to create materials that will encourage youth to help themselves and
each other during tough times. We came
together over the course of 20 weeks using a combination of web-conferencing software and social
networking tools with staff from mindyourmind.ca, a national non-profit mental health website.
The Get Real NationWide initiative seeks to provide information, advocacy, and encouragement to
youth with mental health issues. The promotional materials that we created are designed to change
attitudes towards mental health in our communities and within our networks of family and friends.
We created three posters, a variety of e-cards and an online flash interactive piece to help spread the
message and inspire young people to reach out, get help and give help to others.
Poster 1
we all knew how much all of the everyday issues of life can weigh you
down and eventually lead to much larger problems, like suicide or
mental illness. These issues weigh down on EVERYONE, and there is
most likely at least one word on the poster that every individual can
relate to. The support and shelter offered by friendship help make
problems more bearable. The poster calls out for youth to support
friends who are experiencing problems in any way they can, because
support truly makes a difference.
Poster 2
zine published by a Montreal art collective as well as the movie poster
from the popular nineties movie “Trainspotting”. It states various ways
that youth can be positive mental health allies to friends experiencing troubled times. The concrete
guidance offered by the poster is sure to be useful, and the pop-culture-referencing graphics are eye
catching and relevant.
