#FeelBetter is a young adult depression awareness campaign. At the heart of the campaign are first person narratives of depression and recovery, featuring MediCal mental health benefit coverage.
I forged a relationship with Code for America, culminating in New America Media co-sponsoring and presenting at The National Day of Civic Hacking event at San Francisco State University. Using Human Centered Design principles, I presented a hackathon challenge tailored to the audience of college students that strategically aligned with “FeelBetter”. The outcome was an web site featuring social media friendly stories of depression, treatment and recovery that helps young adults explore issues around depression and seek treatment.
The campaign features outdoor adverting, newspaper ads, and a paid and organic social media campaign.
“How to #FeelBetter” campaign video that I wrote and directed:
Visit FeelBetterCA.org site.
The campaign has an innovative pilot program that partners with community colleges. Journalism students are asked to explore issues of depression in reporting. The strategy is to combine a receptive target audience with storytelling to help build awareness of the campaign.