Team Camel

April 30, 2009

Suicide-Awareness Advertising Campaign
Introduction
Implementing “change” could mean a number of things, but our team had a heart for
raising awareness about suicide on our campus. It’s a very real issue that hit home for several of
us in the group that never gets brought up or talked about by anyone. After bouncing back-and-
forth between what method we would choose to carry out our suicide awareness effort, we
landed at the doorstep of the University’s Counseling Center. We were handed a skeleton idea
for a project—an ad campaign to target close friends to be on the lookout and refer troubled
friends who might be at risk for suicide and in need of the Counseling Center’s services. It
shocked us that 80% of students who commit suicide tell someone close to them before making
an attempt, usually a friend. The problem was that none of these people they tell usually seek
professional help for their friend because of the stigmatism it carries in telling.
The University had wanted to do the campaign for some time now, but it lacked the man
power to push around the ideas and develop a final product that would serve asbe an effective
advertising campaign. As a team, we churned around the information that was provided for us
and worked to create the campaign. Our ultimate goal was to reach out to students and not only
reduce the stigma of reaching out for help, but hopefully increase the number of students referred
by friends. Even if we reached one person, it could be a life saved and worthy of our hard work.
We learned that once a suicidal student was referred to the Counseling Center’s program, there
was well over a 90% success rate for students getting back on track again after participating in
only the 4 mandated sessions. For us, this went beyond a class project—we truly wanted to use
this time to help our own community.
Goals
Team Camel had several goals at the beginning of our project and as time pressed
forward, we realized that we had to narrow our goals down in order to accomplish some
successes. We began the project with an overarching goal of raising awareness of suicide on our
campus amongst students. We wanted to do this by providing students with information about
situations in which suicide has taken place on our campus, along with discussing ways in which
we could all work together to prevent suicide. After doing more research and meeting with Herb
Jones from Housing, we decided that we would narrow the focus of our project from simply

1
raising suicide-awareness on campus, to raising awareness about the help that is available for
students who may be suicidal. We eventually learned from Paul Joffee, the suicide exporter at
the Counseling Center, that our advertising campaign should target the peers of a potentially
suicidal student. This knowledge was a turning point for our team because we felt that if we
could help students understand the signs of suicide and how they could get help for their friends,
we would most definitely be contributing towards significant change on campus.
With our new goal in mind that focused on raising awareness of the suicide prevention
services on campus, Team Camel set another goal that centered on making sure our
advertisements reached the students directly. We wanted the students whom we were targeting to
feel connected to our message. By specifically targeting the peers of a potentially suicidal
person, we felt our message would encourage them to pay more attention and internalize the
information we were providing. As students, we know what it is like to receive several messages
a day via through various mediums. In order to combat the information overload students may
experience, Team Camel felt it that it was imperative to make sure that the messages we were
depicting connected to the experiences of life on campus. Through our narrative- based ads we
knew we would be pursuing our goal centered on raising awareness for suicide prevention
services.
Our last goal for our suicide-awareness advertising campaign dealt with the project’s
sustainability and potential expansion. We felt that it was important for our project to continue
beyond our leadership class because of how important our message was. In order to raise
awareness with the hopes of reducing suicide rates, it would take much more work than a single
semester afforded. In order to ensure our project’s sustainability beyond our class we have begun
a partnership with an organization with a similar set of goals as our own, To Write Lover on Her
Arms. We plan on meeting with Lindsay Bailey, the President of TWLOHA, next week to
discuss taking over what we have begun. Throughout our project Team Camel believed that the
more students we could reach, the better our outcome would be. Now that we have initiated a
partnership with TWLOHA we know that our advertising campaign will have an impact on a
large number of students.

2
Planning and Action
From the first meeting we had our minds in action mode. With a team name decided
upon, we then discussed what our team guidelines and policies should be. The goal of our
meetings were usually established with an agenda and concluded with a discussion of next steps.
It seems like the process has developed over a year rather than a few months. The plan for our
suicide-awareness advertisement campaign came from hours of brainstorming, much debating,
and a great deal of collaborating. We started with a grand advertising campaign with handouts,
magnets, and commercials. Once the reality of our time constraint set in, our grand plan evolved
into an advertisement campaign partnered with the Counseling Center.
Once our group knew that our mission was going to be raising suicide-awareness on
campus, the group then united to build our resources based on our relevant university and
community based contacts. We first met with Herb Jones from Housing who was happy to assist
us with not only the resources to display our campaign, but also the equipment to make it
happen. With our initial idea being a public service announcement that would be shown in
housing as well as the FY-care mandatory orientations, we wanted to make sure our commercial
had a proper tone and a serious message. We next set up appointments with Paul Joffe, a
renowned expert on student crisis and suicide awareness. In talking with Mr. Joffe, he shared a
detailed explanation of the background for suicide on our campus. He also surprised our group
with the support he wanted to continue to give. Mr. Joffe mentioned that the Counseling Center
had wanted to do a similar campaign, but because their time and resources were in high demand
our group would be a great tool to get the creative and marketing drive initiated. We met Paul bi-
weekly and had follow up meetings as a group to formulate our campaign ideas based on his
suggestions and our interpretations. At each one of our group meetings the creativity got deeper
and the message more real.
Once we figured out how needed our campaign was, to both the center and the University
as a whole, our desire for success became more apparent. Our team knew we needed to
determine how and where we would display our work. We talked with the CU-MTD and re-
visited the housing option. The MTD has agreed to display two campaigns a month on all of the
90 buses that circulate both throughout the community and the campus. In talking to the Housing
division, we learned that we could place one of our advertisements in an information magazine
they would be providing all of their residents next fall. Our group is especially excited about the

3
Housing magazine, as it will most remain in most rooms as a more permanent resource. We also
knew the semester would one day come to an end so we made a contact list and projected budget
for Paul. The contact list included our new partner Lindsay Bailey, as well as contacts of all the
RSO offices, Greek offices, Union Marketers, and other locations that would potentially
distribute our campaign.
Suggested Future Steps
For our suicide-awareness advertising campaign we have multiple future steps we would
pursue if our class project extended beyond this semester. A major concern our team had for our
advertising campaign revolved around its sustainability. As of our last meeting with Paul Joffee,
we have provided the Counseling Center with enough finalized mock ups for our advertising
campaign to last through the next fall semester. Not only are we are very excited that we were
able to start up a semester long suicide-awareness advertising campaign, we are even more
thrilled to be passing on the project to a new RSO at the University, To Write Love on Her
Arms. We initiated a partnership with TWLOHA because this group, like our Team, is dedicated
to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury
and suicide. We have just heard back from the RSO’s President, Lindsay Bailey, and have set up
a meeting during finals week to discuss the TWLOHA taking over our advertising campaign.
Now that Team Camel has begun a partnership with TWLOHA we have a few
suggestions for the group in regards to the next steps for the advertising campaign. A major step
for our advertising campaign would be to set up a focus group for the campaign towards the end
of fall semester. To our knowledge, the Counseling Center has never led a campaign like ours
before, so obtaining feedback from students in regards to the effectiveness of our narrative
driven ads would be crucial for the campaign’s overall success. After receiving feedback from
their focus group, TWLOHA could then determine the direction for the campaign. Along with
gathering feedback and determining the campaign’s direction, we would also suggest that
TWLOHA create an annual suicide awareness ad for the Housing magazine given to all Housing
residents at the beginning of the year. The steps laid out above will hopefully address our
campaign’s sustainability, our team’s most prominent concern for our project.
What We Learned
It was a wonderful experience to be given the opportunity to apply what we have learned

about teamwork in our classroom to a real life project. Our goals have been achieved and

4
definition of success has been attained, but we have come to realize that teamwork is a process;.

aA process that can be difficult and time consuming, fun and exciting, productive and

unproductive, and filled with consensus decisions in addition to periods of constructive conflict.

In almost all of our decisions, we used the method of collaboration and now understand that it

does really take a long time. Even collaborating over simple things, such as a day we would meet

was time consuming, difficult, and a bit frustrating! At the same time, there were benefits to the

method of collaboration; the quality of ideas and decisions were often high, and we believe that

not a single member of our group could have accomplished our goals or could have achieved the

same success alone. Effectively, we have learned that a whole is greater than the sum of their

parts.

This was especially true when talking about creativity. As a team, we were able to

branch off each other’s ideas, brainstorm together, and come up with much more effective print

advertisements for the campaign than if we had just worked alone. Teamwork is definitely an

interesting process; we admit that we experienced the phenomenon ofat punctuated equilibrium

mentioned in class. Sometimes, we would experience periods of inactivity, such as talking for an

hour about random things before noticing the time crunch and then swiftly switching from

focusing on relationships to focusing on the task at hand!

Our team’s development was shockingly similar to Tuckman’s 5 stages. We all

remember the “forming” stage clearly; we all went to TGIFriday’s for dinner to discuss our

initial ideas. Everyone was extremely polite, made sure not to interrupt anyone, and made a

clear effort not to shoot down anyone’s idea. Once we got to know each other better, we entered

the “storming” phase, almost kind of like constructive conflict; picking apart each other’s ideas,

struggling over goals and processes, using phrases such as, “Wait, why are we doing this again?”

5
The storming phase then entered the “norming” phase; our struggle became productive, we

eventually settled on an idea for the project and worked together to develop our goals. Next was

“performing,” in which we came together to prepare our meetings with Paul Joffe and our

presentation for the class. A stage we have yet to really think about is “adjourning.” We have

become such a close team that just the thought of going our separate ways makes it all a little

bittersweet.

Overall, we have all agreed that this was by far the best team experience we have had

during our college career. The amount of accountability and trust among our team was

outstanding. Cohesion among our group members created a safe and trusting space for open

communication and the expression of opinions. In the process we have learned to become more

effective listeners and come to understand we each have our own individual strengths, attributes

that makes us all great leaders when contributing to a team.

Great job on your project, CAMEL. Your group shows the best potential for long-term impact

from your work, and I believe this is a direct function of your ability to collaborate with others

and see your goals as flexible while not compromising your core outcomes. Your paper was

descriptive and clear, and while it was a little light on bringing in the class curriculum, you did

a great job of showing the need for work in the area of suicide prevention. Overall, great job!

Paper = 140/150

Presentation = 40/40