Final Project

Project Title: Building Healthier Community Youth Minds

Project Manager name: Elisabeth Huang

Abstract/Project Summary:

The project entails collaborating with various NGOs, associations, and organizations in the Toronto area that are working towards improving mental health. The project aims at creating a full day of various events held throughout the day to promote good mental health while educating the public on various mental health disorders. This will be done by inviting various NGOs, associations, and organizations in the Toronto area to educate the public through various informational booklets and brochures by having their own display booth. They can also use video clips, powerpoint presentation, and any media outlet they wish. We would also contact various mental health youth organizations and provide youth the opportunity to submit artwork and the artwork will be available for purchase. All money raised from these artworks will be donated to an organization who is dedicated in improving the mental health of youth. At the same time, one large wall at the event will be covered with large pieces of paper where youth can relieve their stress by drawing or writing what they feel stress about. The collaboration of this project will hopefully improve the mental well-being of individuals in the community especially youth.

Background information:
The project aims at improving the mental well-being of individuals who are suffering from mental illness and disorders especially youth. According to Canadian Mental Health Association’s estimate, there are approximately 10% to 20% Canadian youth who are affected by a mental illness or disorder (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2011). While the second greatest hospital care expenditure in Canada is mental disorders in youth, which is not unexpected since there are approximately 3.2 million 12 to 19 year olds Canadian youth who are at risk for developing depression with 7% more female youth than male youth who have experienced a major depressive episode(Canadian Mental Health Association, 2011). On an annual basis, there is an average of 294 youths who die from suicide (Canadian Children's Rights Council, 2010).
In addition, the project also plans to educate others about mental health to help reduce the stigma that certain people have on mental illnesses while simultaneously this will help others recognize those who may be suffering from depression early so that they can get the help that they need. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, by recognizing depression, one can provide help which makes a difference for 80% of people who are affected by depression (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2011).

Project Aim and Objectives:

Aims:

1. To educate the public about mental health to reduce the stigma that certain individuals have on mental disorders and illnesses in youth while at the same time, this project will provide them the opportunity to recognize mental disorder symptoms earlier so that they can provide help to those who need it earlier.

2. To provide those who are experiencing mental health disorders an opportunity to express them through art.

Objectives:

1. Objective: A minimum of 10 organizations/associations/clubs will confirm their attendance at least a week prior to the day of the event to educate the public with a variety of different educational resources in the form of brochures, booklets, video clips and other creative educational resources.
How the objective will help achieve the aim of your project: These individuals from various organizations/associations/clubs are often experts in certain mental health fields so the more organizations confirming their attendance to the event, the more knowledge they will be able to provide the public to help reduce the stigma associated with mental disorders, achieving aim 1.

2. Objective: A minimum of one wall will be covered with large pieces of paper to provide youth an opportunity to express themselves.
How the objective will help achieve the aim of your project: This will help alleviate some of the stress that youth are experiencing, achieving aim 2.

Establish principles and guidelines for managing resources (time, money, and people) during the project:
Time – It will take at least a week to draft up an application to request for funding. After hearing about if potential funders will fund us or not then an executive project team will be created to begin the implementation phase of the project. I anticipate that the planning process will take approximately 2 months of planning. After a month from the date of executing the event, I will ask the participants to complete a second questionnaire to see if the project has any influence on the participants by learning about the activities they have engaged in since attending the event.

Money – The main cost of the event include the following:

• Food for the event
• Venue
• Travel fee
• Display boards
• Advertising material (printing costs, Bristol boards)
• Informational banners
• Paint, craft supplies, crayons and stationary items for the paper wall
• Murals for artwork to be painted on

People – My team and I will evaluate the project but will also assess based on the feedback received from the event from participants and ask guests from various booths for their inputs as well.

Workplan/Project Activities—this can include:

Timeline – It will take at least a week to draft up an application to request for funding. After hearing about if potential funders will fund us or not then an executive project team will be created to begin the implementation phase of the project. I anticipate that the planning process will take approximately 2 months of planning. After a month from the date of executing the event, I will ask the participants to complete a second questionnaire to see if the project has any influence on the participants by learning about the activities they have engaged in since attending the event.

A description of activities

Main activities:

1. Various organizations will set up a booth to educate the public about a certain mental health field with many diverse forms of educational tools.

2. Artwork by individuals, who are affected by mental health disorders, will be used to raised funds for an organization dedicated to improving the mental wellbeing of youth in the community through an organized auction.

3. A wall covered with paper will provide the opportunity for youth to express themselves through art and/or words on the paper wall.

4. Individuals who are experiencing mental health issues have the opportunity to share their stories with others.

Beneficiaries:

Youth Affected by Mental Health Disorders – They will have the opportunity to express their stress through the paper wall to alleviate some of their stress. In addition, they will also be able to express themselves through the artwork they submit as well as sharing their stories to help others better understand their condition and they are going through.

Organization Dedicated to Improving Wellbeing of Youth - Funds from the Art Auction will be donated to an organization who is working towards improving the mental health of youth in the community.

General Public – They will be educated about mental health disorders so that if they had certain stigma about certain mental health disorders, it’ll be decreased. In addition, since they are more educated about various mental health disorders, they will be able to recognize the symptoms earlier to assist those who are affected by mental disorders earlier.

Stakeholders:

• Project Team and Project Manager
• Organizations/Associations/NGOs who are involved in improving mental health of youth
• Youth who are affected by mental health disorders
• Neighbouring communities of Toronto
• Day of the Day Volunteers (For a specific list of the responsibilities of the event, please see below)

Volunteer involvement if applicable;

Volunteers have the opportunity to volunteer their time on the day of the event for various tasks including but not limited to the following:

• Ushering
• Assisting each organization with their booth if needed
• Setting up before the event
• Serving refreshments
• Collecting donations
• Overseeing the artwork auction
• Cleaning up after the event

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Indicators of Achievement:

Objective 1: To educate at least 100 individuals of the general public about the importance of mental well-being of youth in the community and to provide the public with opportunities to get involved in assisting to improve the mental health of youth.
Indicator: Achieve an attendance number of at least 100 to the event so that they can be aware of the various mental health disorders in the community affecting youth.

Evidence required	How often/ When	Obtained from
1. A method to keep track of the number of people who attend the event by registration 2. Create a questionnaire that ask attendees what they have learned from the event	-At the start of the event -At the start of the event -Throughout the event	Elisabeth Huang Elisabeth Huang

Objective 2: To raise at least $100 for an organization committed to improving the mental wellbeing of youth.
Indicator: To raise a minimum of $100

Evidence required	How often/ When	Obtained from
1. Art auction will have each painting starting at a minimum of 5 dollars.	-Throughout the event, donations will be accepted while auctioning the paintings	Elisabeth Huang

Reporting of project outcomes and learning;

A detailed report will be implemented to provide information on the project outcome compiled by the project team.

Funding, if applicable:

At the moment, I am not sure where I will get funding for this project but a few of the funding options I am considering are the following:

FEDS Special Project Grant

Do Something Grant - http://www.dosomething.org/

References

http://www.cmha.ca/bins/index.asp?lang=1

http://www.canadiancrc.com/Youth_Suicide_in_Canada.aspx

Assignment 3: Monitoring, Evaluating, and Reporting on the Project

1. Write a list of the major assumptions you have made in designing your project. Identify 3 key things you want to learn more about.
Major assumptions

• A strong background and knowledge in microfinancing is needed for social entrepreneurship
• It is important to have an unique idea in order to be able to design an economical strategy to improve the economical impact of a place through social entrepreneurship
• Water is becoming a scarce resource worldwide
  

3 Key Things I want to Learn About

1. How can I design an unique strategic plan to improve the community?
2. What is a specific need that the community need the most and how to determine that? What sort of research is needed as all needs are important?
3. What makes certain social entrepreneurship more successful?

2. Following the 8 steps in this module, develop an evaluation plan for your project. Use the headings below as a guide as well as the questions included throughout the module (see the sections). You can also refer to the ‘Evaluation Plan Case Study’ in this module for help.

Project title: Sharing Water Worldwide

Project Manager: Elisabeth Huang

Purpose of evaluation: To assess whether the efforts of the project, Sharing Water Worldwide, was effective in educating the public about water resources-the importance of using water to efficiently protect our planet as well as building a well for a community in Africa. By thoroughly evaluating the implementation of the project, this will enable my team and I how to further improve and precede the future of the project so that we can make a meaningful influence on the community.

Involvement of Stakeholders:
Neighbouring communities of the Toronto area – The resources of the project will be aimed at educating neighbouring communities in the Toronto area.

Elisabeth Huang – As the Project Manager, I will be overseeing the daily operation of the project’s activities as well as assessing the progress of the project and make any necessary changes to improve the future of the project.

University of Waterloo FEDS – Funding will be requested from the University of Waterloo FEDS via application process – unsure whether we will acquire funding from them but this will hopefully be a potential sponsor who will support our project otherwise we will try to apply to http://www.dosomething.org/ for funding.

University of Waterloo International Health Development Association – I will like to ask individuals in this association if they are interested in forming a team that focus on this specific project since they are already individuals in this association who is interested in international development issues.

Life Water – The money raised from this event will be going to Life Water where a well will be built for a community in Africa. (http://www.lifewater.ca/)

Community in Africa – The community that will receive the well.

Indicators of achievement:
Objective 1: To educate at least 100 individuals about the importance of water and how to get involved in raising awareness about water sanitation in developing countries.

Indicator: Achieve an attendance number of at least 100 to the event.

Evidence required	How often/ When	Obtained from
1. A method to keep track of the number of people who attend the event by registration 2. Create a questionnaire that ask attendees what they have learned from the event 3. Photographs of the event	-At the start of the event -At the start of the event -Throughout the event -At the end of the event -Throughout the event	Elisabeth Huang Elisabeth Huang Elisabeth Huang

Objective 2: To raise enough funds to drill a well for a village in Africa

Indicator: To raise a minimum of $3000

Evidence required	How often/ When	Obtained from
1. Donations from raindrops (Each person that makes a minimum donation of $1 will receive a raindrop where they can write their name and stick it on the wall) 2. Number of tickets sold	-Throughout the event, donations will be accepted -Throughout the event tickets will be sold -At the end of the event, the tickets will be totaled	Elisabeth Huang Elisabeth Huang

Baseline information required:
Primary source of information
We will conduct a research to determine what the situation was like before carrying out this event-how knowledgeable the public is about water and their usage of water as well as learning about the need of the African community for a well. We will also request LifeWater for information on African communities. As for local information, we will contact local government dealing with water issues in neighboring Toronto communities for up to date primary sources of information to educate the community.

Secondary source of information
We will visit the library for secondary sources of information for educating the public as well as conduct an online search for a general overview of water sanitation issues.

Evaluation tools and techniques to be used:
At the beginning of the event when people register, one of the questions requests that the individual provide their email address. At the end of the event, a questionnaire will be sent to the attendees of the event requesting that they answer certain information in regards to what they have learned from the event, what they liked from the event, what are some of their suggestions to improve the event for future purposes and other questions. The questionnaire will be created using a computer using http://www.surveymonkey.com/ since I am quite familiar with the site and it is easy to produce and analyze the results in the way that it is organized. A month later, I will send another questionnaire to see if the event has influence the activities of the attendees of the event. The team will then have a meeting within 1 week after the event to assess and evaluate the event thoroughly by communicating verbally at the meeting to improve the event.

Logistical & resource considerations:
Time – It will take at least a week to draft up an application to request for funding. Once we hear from the potential funder which could be anywhere from a week to three weeks, I will start putting an executive team together to begin the implementation of this project. It should take approximately 2 months of planning. After a month from the date of executing the event, I will ask the participants to complete a second questionnaire to see if the project has any influence on the participants by learning about the activities they have engaged in since attending the event.

Money – The main cost of the event include the following:

• Food for the event
• Venue
• Travel fee
• Display boards
• Advertising material (printing costs, Bristol boards)
• Informational banners
• Film for photographs

People – My team and I will evaluate the project but will also assess based on the feedback received from the event and ask guest speakers for their inputs.

Approach to the analysis of information:
Conclusions regarding the success of the event based on the feedback of the participants will be converted into useful information collected online. The information will be analyzed via online using http://www.surveymonkey.com/ where graphs will be automatically designed based on the information of the survey received. However, graphs would not be generated for text answers but will be created for those where the answer input is in numerical format.

Reporting and communication of outcomes / learning:
My team and I will create a report for the University of Waterloo FEDS or dosomething.org based on who decides to fund our project. In the report, we will include a recommendation section to inform our funder future steps required to carry out in order to help our community to successfully achieve their needs. In addition, a meeting will be organize to discuss the results of the project to other members of the University of Waterloo International Health Development Association to foster prospective interests early should the project continues to be an annual event.