MAKE IT OK CAMPAIGN Iowa Healthiest State Initiative JAMI HABREL Executive Director Iowa Healthiest State Initiative SARAH OYIBO Founder/Creative Director Studio Delta Designs Why was it important for Iowa Healthiest State to focus on this particular campaign and focus on Black Iowa Mental Health? The Iowa Healthiest State Initiative is a nonprofit organization launched in 2011 to ensure that every Iowan can live their healthiest life by creating awareness and integrating solutions to improve the physical, social and mental wellbeing of Iowans. In 2019, the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative launched the Make It OK campaign to reduce stigma by starting conversations and increasing understanding about mental illness. Mental illness impact 1 in 5 Iowans yet we don’t talk about it like we do physical illnesses. Knowing that stigma of mental illnesses is a major barrier for Iowans to seek treatment, this campaign provided us the opportunity to engage in conversations so that stigma isn’t a major barrier, and that Iowans would seek the help that they deserve. As we worked to engage Iowans, we also learned that the Make It OK message doesn’t resonate across cultures – that mental illness doesn’t have the same meaning, language and understanding. With this feedback I knew that in order to do this right we needed to bring in the community that we wanted to support as it needed to be created by the community for the community. What is the impact you want this campaign to make on the state of Iowa? The ultimate impact is that Black Iowans have an increased awareness about mental health and mental illness and ask for support so they can truly live their healthiest life. Talk about the design process in creating a campaign focusing on mental health for Black Iowans. My design process for the Back the Black campaign was a little different than my usual work, because I had a whole team of people in a focus group to work and brainstorm with. It was really helpful to get multiple perspectives on the look and feel of the materials, as well as the verbiage, to make sure this campaign really spoke to the Black community here in Iowa. I began this process by joining the focus group for regular meetings where we created a mission statement, defined different target groups, and mapped out a marketing strategy together. Then I took all the information we had gathered and got to work designing the marketing materials. Why was it important for you to be involved in this project and what do you hope Black Iowans take from this campaign. It was important for me to be involved with this project because mental health is such an important part of overall well-being, yet it isn't accepted as such in the Black community. The goal of this campaign was to extend a loving invitation for people to start the process of mental health awareness, so I hope people have that perception upon seeing the materials we created. I hope this campaign helps Black Iowans see that mental health illnesses are normal and that it's okay to learn more about what it is and how to get help. M
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