Bring Change to Mind is a new club at H-F that is about changing the stigma around mental health with engaging students in fun activities and giving back to the community. The club was started by social workers Lauren White and Jocelyn Cowan in order to express the importance of mental health at H-F. 

The president of the club is senior Orewoula Shodipo and she helps with organizing events, working on pop-ups in the hallway and outreaching for the club to get more members. 

The group has contributed to multiple events, such as volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, Bring Change To Mind week and pop-up advertisements in the G-building hallway.  

Cowan, one of the founding members of the club, wants to expand the outreach to people to show that mental health is important.

 “Mental health is important because it’s something that we all have, it’s just like physical health,” Cowan said. “It’s something that’s really not seen and so people don’t really take it as seriously as a physical ailment or physical challenge.” 

Bringing awareness to the issue of mental health can help people dealing with those issues and that is what Bring Change To Mind is focused on.  

White, another founder of the club, has many plans for the future of the club and wants the club to keep expanding. 

“The club seems to be doing great and growing so I want it to continue to grow, to continue to do student run activities, have some really thoughtful discussions around mental health and do like more large school incentives,” White said.  

The club has grown dramatically since its conception and Cowan is planning to have more public events and more outside influence coming to the school.

“We’ve partnered with some outside organizations that are kind of exploring the possibilities of bringing publicity to Change To Mind and Homewood-Flossmoor by maybe having outside artists come in and doing more surrounding mental health,” Cowan said.

She continued that, “we do have a trajectory of growth coming for the future.  We’re not sure quite what it looks like, but we do have plans on the table to spread it out more to community awareness.” 

The club has already started bringing more publicity with events such as the Feed My Starving Children field trip and having guest speakers meet with students to lecture about mental health.

The club has great events planned for the future.

As said by Shodipo, “right now, since we are in spring and school is ending, our plans include participating in a Bring Change to Mind mental health fair and giving back to the community through a food drive.”

Shodipo is also a strong believer in the importance of mental health and is a firm believer in taking it seriously and treating it like any other issue. 

“Mental health is important as it affects every aspect of our lives,” Shodipo said. “It influences how we handle things that life throws at us so prioritizing it is essential to maintaining a balanced and fulfilling life.”

The club is joinable through the Snap website and is always opening to new members to spread well-being across H-F.