In celebration of World Mental Health Awareness Day, Snap is launching Club Unity, a new board of young leaders that unites today’s leading actors, dancers, singers, and athletes to support Gen Z voices; empowering them to address the generation’s most critical topics. In its inaugural year, Club Unity is addressing the need to increase support around the mental health and wellbeing of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth.
We are thrilled to announce that this year Club Unity includes humanitarian and former fashion model Halima Aden, musicians and actresses Chloe x Halle, actor Ricky Thompson, Atlanta Hawks basketball player Trae Young, and dancer Maddie Ziegler, coached by Snap Original star Yusuf Omar. These Snapchatters are opening up about their own mental health journeys and encouraging young people to take steps to do the same.
From our earliest days, Snapchat was designed to empower young people to express themselves authentically and as a platform built for communicating with your closest friends, we believe Snapchat has a unique opportunity to make a difference and have built in-app resources and features to support our community. We have always been inspired by the power that real friendships have in determining health and happiness. Studies show that spending time with friends, whether in person or online, is the best defense against feeling lonely or depressed and that friends are often a first port of call for those struggling with a mental health challenge.
Starting today, you can access a new suite of resources in Here For You, our in-app mental health resource hub that address ways to start tough conversations with friends, such as active listening tips, and daily affirmations. These resources are promoted to Snapchatters when they search common mental health terms like anxiety, depression, and stress on Snapchat, and are designed to be easily shared with close friends and family to help support one another through the highs and lows. Our community can also access new creative tools like Lenses, Stickers, and Bitmojis to help them easily express themselves or reach out to friends in need.
As part of our inaugural year of Club Unity, we have begun a multi-year partnership with Active Minds, a mental health organization for students and young adults with a network of more than 800 campus chapters at colleges, universities, and high schools nationwide. Our partnership will support the expansion of Active Minds chapters at community colleges, HBCUs, and high-schools with the goal of reaching a larger number of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students. In the coming weeks, Snap Inc. and Active Minds will host the first-ever Club Unity Summit with undergraduate students where all attendees will have the opportunity to become officially certified by Active Minds in Validate, Appreciate, ReferⓇ to help support friends through challenges.
Together, we hope to continue the work to positively impact the lives of young adults across the United States through mental health advocacy and programs.
Check out these new resources and let your close friend know that you are here for them — and join us in doing our part to support one another.