Tips

Planning Your Screening

1. Spread the Wealth (and the Work). Need help organizing and promoting your in-person event or online screening? Student government, residence life associations, Greek life, and other student groups are always looking for community service opportunities, and their involvement makes your CollegeResponse event a fun collaborative effort (and less work for you).

2. Location, Location, Location. Nobody’s going to come to the in-person event if you hold it in the basement of the old psychology building. Stick to areas with heavy traffic: the student union, dining halls, large dorms. If you have the staff for it, set up more than one location.

3. Internet, huh? Most students get their news online – make sure your event and/or your school’s online screening is publicized on the college’s intranet, through electronic bulletin boards or the school website’s calendar. Prominently display the link to your school’s online screening by placing it at the top of the web page in large, bold print to attract students’ attention. Try to get mentioned in e-newsletters and listservs.

4. Timing is Everything. You don’t have to hold your in-person event on the national, annual day (i.e. NDSD on October 5th, 2006). If you can piggyback onto a pre-existing, popular school event (a health fair, for example, or homecoming festivities), you can make use of the captive audience. If not, make sure to schedule the event for times when people are out and about (after class, around lunchtime, etc.).

5. Word-of-Mouth (Plus Some Added Incentives). Send an email to faculty encouraging them to announce in-person and/or online screenings in class or offer extra credit for taking a screening. Let RA’s know that screening/education events are an easy way to fulfill their floor/house event requirements.

6. Extra, Extra, Read All About It. Use sample publicity materials (included in your program kits) to get the word out around campus. Get your student newspaper to run an announcement in advance, then ask them to attend and write a feature. For online screenings, pass out postcards that include the online screening website. Put the postcards in student mailboxes, on dining hall tables, or hand them to students who walk by.

Running Your Screening

1. Make It Fun. Okay, it can be tricky when the subject matter is depression or alcohol use – that doesn’t mean that your event has to be a downer. Dress it up with the posters, banners and flyers from the kit. The idea is to decrease the stigma attached to mental health disorders; promote events with non-judgmental phrases like “Test Your Moods” for NDSD.

2. Smile! During the in-person event, don’t just stand behind a table waiting for students to come fill out the forms. Make sure you and your friendly, outgoing staff approach passersby and encourage them to take the screening. Those student leaders you’ve recruited can attract friends and classmates.

3. Free Stuff . Free food, gift certificates, movie passes and other swag are a great way to draw a crowd to your in-person event. You know those companies that are always trying to promote their products on campus by giving away free stuff? Use them as a source of giveaway items.

4. Don’t Forget Your Staff. Make sure you’ve recruited and started to train staff for the in-person event a month before. When you’re done, give them a big public thank you.