student leaders on slack

At Active Minds, we are constantly striving to enhance our ability to communicate with our phenomenal student leaders around the country and provide space in which to communicate with one another — especially in this time of social distancing. Enter: Slack!

Slack is a comprehensive platform that gives you the ability to ask questions, provide ideas, share successes, and overall build a more cohesive network of Active Minds mental health advocates and activists.

Knowing how important the simple act of connection and community is during this COVID-19 crisis, we’re thrilled that our partner, the period brand just., has provided support to allow free access for ALL students to join the Active Minds Slack Network.

Several people from the Active Minds national office are part of Slack as well, and we look forward to Slack-ing with you!

four steps to get started

1. Read the Community Dos and Don’ts below
2. Sign up for Slack and download the app onto your phone and/or computer
3. Set your notifications to your liking
4. Hop into the Slack and start interacting!

community do’s and don’ts

Feel free to:

• Follow Slack and participate in channels and conversations that seem appealing to you
• Use Slack primarily within standard business hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 am-5:00 pm (in time zones across the United States)
• Pose questions and ideas to Active Minds staff, interns, and fellow Active Minds chapter leaders
• Start conversation threads off of posts that you would like to engage with further
• Chat with a specific peer, or several, using Direct Messages
• Express appreciations, share successes, troubleshoot challenges, etc.
• Add reaction emojis to posts!
• Request that a unique channel be created to discuss a specific topic or connect with leaders who have commonalities (i.e., geographic regions, type or size of school, awareness campaigns, specific events)
• Report any posts that cause you concern or distress.

Refrain from:

• Engaging in negative or controversial discussions, including those of a political nature
• Expressing current, personal mental health struggles in a public forum, as it may be distressing to others – if you are currently struggling, please seek support from the National Suicide Prevention Hotline or the Crisis Text Line. You are not alone.
• Disparaging or slandering another person or entity. Our Slack team is for constructive, productive, and hope-based communication!

Keep in mind that:

• Active Minds staff and interns are monitoring all Slack communications. Comments that violate our community agreements will be promptly removed, and the person who posted the comment(s) in question may be expelled from the Slack team.
• As a federally recognized 501c(3) nonprofit organization, Active Minds is prohibited from engaging in partisan political discussions. Doing so may compromise our tax-exempt organizational status. Please respect that boundary.

let’s get started Slack-ing!

Notifications & Profile

Be sure to customize your notifications so that you are seeing everything that you want to see, while not being overwhelmed. You can customize your notifications for each individual channel, set “Do Not Disturb” hours, change the sounds and appearance, and customize settings for your phone and computer.

Once you’ve set up your account, download the Slack app to your cell phone and/or computer. (Whatever you do on one device is reflected everywhere — Slack apps keep your place, letting you pick up wherever you left off.)

• Edit your profile to include additional information about you and a photo!
• In the menu, you’ll find “Preferences”: top right corner in cell phone app, top left corner in computer app. Here you can customize your notification preferences so you don’t miss anything that’s important to you, and to ensure that you are not receiving too much. This can always be changed if you find that you are seeing too many notifications, or too few.

Channels

What’s the deal with all these Slack channels?

This is the beauty of Slack. You can opt in or out of many different conversations within this platform. All student leaders on the channel will be automatically added to the #announcements, #celebrations, and #chaptersupport channels. Each of these are unique in their purposes, and will house different types of discussions:

• #announcements: A space for Active Minds announcements and national initiatives. National staff will post opportunities and pertinent current events in this channel.
• #chaptersupport: Have some questions? Need an idea? Have a great idea for other student leaders? Post them here! Relevant media articles and compelling learnings can also be posted here.
• #celebrations: We love celebrating the outstanding work that you all are doing all over the country! Tell us about what you, your chapter, or your network are doing that is working. What successful program did you recently implement? What is something amazing you heard from one of your members about their involvement with Active Minds? Uplifting messages and testimonials are always welcomed here too.

To find these channels and any others that are available, click “CHANNELS” in the left column of the Slack app or web client, and you’ll see what channels are available to join. Or…

• Request a new channel! Want to have a conversation with your peers about something specific? Email slack@activeminds.org or Direct Message a national staff person (indicated by their “firstname_nationalstaff” username), to request that a new channel be created. For example, you may want to request something like… #communitycolleges, #smallschools, #southerncalifornia, #transformyourcampus, #fundraising, etc.

More information

Visit www.slack.com for more information about the platform and general support. This is a free service and is available for use by any group.

If you have questions or would like to report a concerning post on the Active Minds Chapter Network Slack, email slack@activeminds.org. We will respond as soon as possible.