"It's Ok to be Awesome" Mental Wellness Educational Program

It’s OK to be Awesome: An innovative mental wellness program proven to help youth develop CONFIDENCE and recognize their WORTH.

It's OK to be Awesome is addressing a huge gap in the education system. Curriculum is not educating on self-worth; a factor essential to anyone achieving their full potential. Results of this lack are devastatingly high levels of anxiety among both students and teachers, as well as the rise in poor mental health among children and youth. Without education on the topic, young people do not have the coping skills to powerfully deal with their emotions, reactions and natural stress.

Our proposed solution is introducing the It’s Ok to be Awesome online program to classrooms around the world. Our live program has been proven to improve the mindsets, attitudes and lives of children. The approach is preventative, with a focus on fostering positive mental wellness and self-awareness from a young age, rather than treating the symptoms of already affected youth.

Endorsement by the Canadian Mental Health Association has served as proof that our educational approach works. In fact, they indicate that the social emotional learning approach and proactive nature of our programming is highly recommended. CMHA nationally has moved from messaging that focuses on the 1 in 5 with mental illness, to the fact that 5 in 5 people have mental health. They feel that It’s OK to be Awesome aligns with this messaging nicely. 

Our solution will change the world on many levels. Most notably through introducing the concept of “Self-worth education” into core curriculum. Once undergone by both the teacher and students, each party would have more self-understanding and self-compassion. When a child believes in their abilities they have more energy to go after goals and accomplish them. When they have more self-worth, they are more likely to be kind to themselves and to uplift their peers. Giving children a solid foundation and the skills to design a life they love, we are fostering a generation of passionate leaders, innovators, and social entrepreneurs.

This program also supports populations who aren’t getting the attention they need to thrive. Regarding special needs, in order for people to accept and work with their special strengths, they need to believe in themselves. They must accept themselves and see the value in their skill set and potential in order to choose to empower themselves throughout life. Learning how to take responsibility for their lives and actions will also serve people from low socio-economic background. As the program enhances self-worth and self-confidence, it will help empower children to break out of disempowering circumstances and patterns and into a life they deserve! More than just achieve their dreams, however, they need to learn how to be with themselves and how to love themselves through the many experiences that a full life has to offer.

We are innovative because we recognize that there is a problem of low self-worth in our society that starts very innocently. We help children build a strong foundation of worth in a very memorable way: using puppets!

We explore topics like the power of choice, positive self-talk, working with emotions, self-awareness and self-compassion. Using our main puppet Tez to deliver mindset coaching workshops and TEZ talks, we break down barriers on topics that are otherwise difficult to address and make learning much more fun.

Technology is integral to our solution because it will allow the proven life-changing program to have further reach and scalability. By turning the program into an online video series, we aim to make it available in classrooms around the world. Because games are an effective way of reaching our target age group, in future, we would also like to develop a game or app that compliments the program.

Over the next twelve months we plan to develop, film and launch our online video series. We have already secured an educational distribution platform as well as a production company. 

We also plan to continue to deliver the program live in schools during the filming process. We will be developing a training program, as well as manual and program guide, for teachers so that they can facilitate the program once it is finished.

We also plan to develop an "Awesome Ambassador Training" for youth who have gone through the program and want to deliver the content to their community.

Our vision over the next three to five years is to make empowerment and self-worth mainstream in society.

Using the online platform and teachers’ trainings, we will distribute the program to schools across North America. Next, we will translate and adapt our video series to a global market in different languages and different cultural contexts. Self-worth is a universal and basic human need.

We are also looking to engage and employ at risk youth by creating a program where they build the puppet stages and puppets.

We will reach new locations by first targeting teachers. We will make teachers our champions and this will create more relationships and distribution opportunities through provincial/state school districts.

To retain our customers and beneficiaries:

-We will continue to develop new program content for the schools. Including: an awesome ambassador program for youth who have already gone through the program. 

- We will organize youth summits and trainings for teachers and Awesome Ambassadors.

-We will be guest speakers at schools and large educational conferences.

To date, we have served 400 children and youth, 200 parents and 100+ teachers with our programming. This was done in a live format, whether through in-class education, week-long camps or workshops. Some children did the program more than once, returning as “Awesome Ambassadors”. Children have been directly affected by our solution and report improved quality of life, increased happiness and self-compassion, and a more positive attitude. As indicated in post-program surveys taken by participants and their parents, %100 of children who have undergone the programming are kinder to themselves and have a more positive outlook on life. 

As we will be completing our video series, and training teachers as facilitators, in schools across the country, we plan to be serving 1000 youth in the next 12 months. In 3 years, once the online content is ready, we plan to be serving 5000-10 000 students across the country.

We are energetic, creative innovators who write amazing content. Our unconventional approach is refreshing is supported by expert organizations. We have excellent interpersonal skills and are able to connect with any audience or client through pitch or presentation.

Our production team is renowned and unique. Hemmings House Pictures is a certified B-Corporation that employs change-makers who feverishly produce filmed content that makes a difference.

We have content and heart and we need to expand our knowledge base and partnerships in the technological sphere. 

To date, revenue has been business to customer; schools and parents. Due to tremendous results and increasing demand, we are filming the content so  the business can scale.

Developing an online program (modular video series) and creating a training program for teachers to facilitate, will help us scale and sustain further.

In addition, we generate revenue through:

-week long summer and march break camps

-full and half day workshops for various youth oriented organizations

-full and half day workshops for parents in the region.

Support from the experts at MIT Solve would be tremendous. Primarily, Solve can help us advance our goals through mentorship on how to create a solid online platform and presence, how to market to schools and communities and how to connect with research experts for data collection and analysis so the program can always be improving. We would also love guidance to create a strategy for scalability (both nationally and globally) and financial support for the actual filming process. Introductions to other organizations and key stakeholders would also be invaluable as networking and collaboration are the most powerful currency.

Key barriers for our solution to succeed are:

-How to gather/analyze data and build our evidence base.

-How to acquire sustainable funding from government and school.

-How to work with disadvantaged communities who wouldn't normally have access to the programming. How do we create scholarship funds for children from low-income families to attend camps and then empower their families and peers?