SAIC TO JOIN THE JED & CLINTON HEALTH MATTERS CAMPUS PROGRAM TO SUPPORT STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH
SAIC Partners with The Jed Foundation and The Clinton Foundation to Assess and Enhance Programming for
Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Suicide Prevention
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is among the first 55 schools to join The Jed & Clinton Health Matters Campus Program (The Campus Program), which is designed to help colleges and universities assess and enhance their mental health and substance abuse and suicide prevention programming. Participating schools make a four-year commitment to work with The Campus Program to evaluate and identify opportunities to expand and improve their mental health services. The Campus Program provides schools with a framework for supporting student mental health, as well as assessment tools, feedback reports, and ongoing technical assistance from The Campus Program team. Membership in The Campus Program demonstrates SAIC’s commitment to promoting students’ emotional wellbeing and improving substance abuse and suicide prevention programming. SAIC's participation follows the school's award of a Jed Foundation Campus Seal in 2013 in recognition of its comprehensive mental health promotion and suicide prevention programming on campus.
“As an institution that prioritizes the health and wellness of its student body, we are incredibly proud to join The Campus Program,” said Joe Behen, Executive Director of Counseling, Health, and Disability Services at SAIC. “SAIC is in excellent company on the list of participating universities, such as Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, and Northwestern. This program demonstrates our commitment to comprehensive mental health programming at SAIC and the emotional wellbeing of SAIC students.”
“The college years are the age when many mental health issues first manifest, and it can be a time of significant stress and pressure,” said John MacPhee, Executive Director of The Jed Foundation. “The Jed and Clinton Health Matters Campus Program helps schools by working with them to survey everything their university is doing to support their students’ emotional health and find practical ways to augment these efforts in a comprehensive way. We believe that the implementation of a campus-wide approach to mental health will lead to safer, healthier campuses, and likely greater student retention.”
The Campus Program begins with a participating school taking a confidential, self-assessment survey on its mental health promotion, substance abuse, and suicide prevention programming. Upon completion, survey responses are reviewed by The Campus Program team in juxtaposition with its comprehensive set of recommended practices. Schools then receive customized feedback and suggestions for enhancements and direct support for their planning process. All survey responses and feedback reports are confidential.
For more information on The Campus Program, visit TheCampusProgram.org.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
A leader in educating artists, designers, and scholars since 1866, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers nationally accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees and post-baccalaureate programs to nearly 3,200 students from around the globe. Located in the heart of Chicago, SAIC has an educational philosophy built upon an interdisciplinary approach to art and design, giving students unparalleled opportunities to develop their creative and critical abilities while working with a renowned faculty that includes many leading practitioners of their fields. SAIC's resources include the Art Institute of Chicago and its new Modern Wing; numerous special collections and programming venues provide students with exceptional exhibitions, screenings, lectures, and performances. For more information, please visit saic.edu.
About The Campus Program
The Campus Program is a nationwide initiative designed to help colleges and universities promote emotional wellbeing and mental health programming, reduce substance abuse, and prevent suicide among their students. When a school becomes a member of The Campus Program, it demonstrates the school’s commitment to assessing and enhancing their mental health promotion and substance abuse and suicide prevention programming for students, families, and campus professionals.
The Campus Program is a joint initiative of The Jed Foundation, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to promoting emotional health and preventing suicide among college students, and the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Health Matters Initiative, which works to improve the health and wellbeing of people throughout the United States across all generations.
About The Jed Foundation
The Jed Foundation is a leading nonprofit working to protect the emotional health of teenagers and college students. Our programs are inspiring a new national dialogue on mental health, encouraging millions of young people to speak up and take action, and changing the way academic institutions create healthier campus communities. These programs include The Jed and Clinton Foundation Health Matters Campus Program, a groundbreaking self-assessment and feedback program that helps colleges create more comprehensive solutions to support their students; ULifeline, an online resource that helps students understand and address mental health conditions like depression and anxiety disorders; the Half of Us campaign in collaboration with MTV, which uses online and on-air programming to share stories and encourage help-seeking; the Love is Louder movement that helps individuals, communities and schools build resiliency, create connectedness and promote acceptance; Transition Year, an online resource for parents aimed at helping to ensure a smooth, healthy transition into college life; and a portfolio of resources that helps campuses promote emotional health and protect at-risk students. Learn more at jedfoundation.org.
About the Clinton Foundation
The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation brings businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals together to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunities for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunities and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change. Because of our work, 20,000 American schools are providing kids with healthy food choices in an effort to eradicate childhood obesity; 28,000 farmers in Malawi have improved their incomes by more than 500 percent; 248 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions are being reduced in cities worldwide; more than 5,000 people have been trained in marketable job skills in Colombia; 8.2 million people have access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications; $200 million in strategic investments have been made, impacting the health of 75 million people in the U.S.; and members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made nearly 2,900 Commitments to Action to improve more than 430 million lives around the world.
The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) works to improve the health and wellbeing of people throughout the United States across all generations.
