Learning How to Make Meaningful Change: My Journey to Becoming a Global Mind
Written By: Jessica Carswell
I think one of the greatest challenges that we face as change makers is not knowing where to start. There is so much suffering in our world and so many things that need changing, and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to begin, to imagine that you can make a difference. One of the greatest lessons that I took away from the Global MINDS 2017 Summer Institute is that you can’t do it alone, that we are in this fight together. When we are reminded that there is a whole world out there of people who are passionate about positive social change, of lessening the global burden of mental disorders, of social justice and health equity, the tasks that lie ahead of us seem possible, they transform from a vision into something tangible.
As my group and I move forward with our project, I am amazed when I think about how far we have come. In the beginning, I can recall how unsure and hesitant we were about our ideas and what we could do to affect real, positive social change, and now we have a focus and a clear vision. We are attempting to create a student volunteer-based initiative centred on creating opportunities for people with and without mental illness to participate in meaningful community activities. We were able to move beyond those feelings of being overwhelmed by the possibility of failure, or of not being able to do enough, and have embraced the process of social innovation. By working together and sharing our ideas we have been able to create something that I could never have predicted coming into the institute.
There is no doubt that what we are doing is hard, but I am a strong believer in the phrase, “nothing good comes easy”. I am constantly challenged and sometimes overcome by feelings of doubt and uncertainty, but then I remind myself that what we are doing matters; if we do not try then we cannot succeed. I stress the “we” because as I have said, this journey is so much bigger than me, we must collaborate and co-create in order to bring our ideas to fruition.
When I think about all I have learned about what it takes to affect positive social change and make a significant impact in global health, I understand how integral the principles of the Global MINDS movement are to this. The five principles are as follows: create a culture of innovation, foster cultural humility, participate authentically, be disruptive to be innovative, and build communities of practice. I see how my group embodies these principles, and in turn, how these principles contribute to the success of our work.
- Create a Culture of Innovation. As I reflect back on my time at the Institute, I remember being so intimidated by the word, “innovation”. I felt an immense amount of pressure to come up with an idea that was new and challenged what was currently being done in the Machakos community. Then, one of our faculty advisors reminded us to “trust the process” and that the result would be something innovative – this was a game changer for me. If I allowed myself to be creative and think outside the box, if I interacted with my surroundings in an honest and curious way, if I supported my team mates to do the same, then we couldn't help but come up with something that addressed our problem from a different perspective. I think one of the most important drivers of my group’s success is our ability to allow each other to take risks and encourage each other’s independent thought. We have truly created a culture of innovation and our ideas continue to evolve and improve as a result.
- Foster Cultural Humility. Our project consists of working in an international and cross-cultural context. Mental health is viewed differently in Canada than in Kenya, and there are different practices that are considered appropriate or valuable in each. Coming from Canada to the Summer Institute, I found that some of my values and beliefs about the world were challenged, and I was forced to re-evaluate and self-critique, and ensure that the approach that I was taking to my work was one that was open-minded, informed, and culturally safe. I strongly feel that all of my teammates hold these beliefs and we are continuously working towards a solution that is both appropriate and acceptable to the community in which we are working with.
- Participate Authentically. I found this principle particularly liberating in that throughout the entire Institute, I was given permission to be me, completely and truly. This allowed me to not be afraid to take chances and embrace new ideas and take the risks that needed to be taken in order to achieve our desired outcome – a possible solution to a very complex problem. Throughout our time in Machakos, we interacted with numerous people and networks and our team’s authenticity and sincere desire to help contributed to building the trust and respect needed in order to gain the first hand experience and knowledge necessary to know where to start when it came to tackling our challenge.
- Be Disruptive To Be Innovative. “A disruptive innovation is one that displaces an existing approach to produce something new, more efficient and effective.” This is the definition given on the Global MINDS website; it means that in order to create the conditions for innovation, we need to upset the status quo, we need to come up with ideas that go against the norm. We must not be afraid to be different because it is this very difference, this veering from what's been done, that leads to real change. I feel like my group has been able to carefully and sensitively examine the current challenges faced by our community partner and the individuals living with mental health concerns in Machakos, and come up with a new and exciting way to include all people in the community. We are helping to redefine what it means to participate and be included in the community and it is this redefinition that we hope leads to an increase in the quality of life for those living with mental disorders in Machakos.
- Build Communities of Practice. I think that this principle is one of the biggest strengths of the Global MINDS movement. It seeks to bring together people across various academic and professional disciplines in order to address complex challenges through a number of different lenses. It is bringing together people who are engaged and motivated to make a difference – each person’s weakness is balanced out by another person’s strength. Something that I really struggled with throughout the Institute was the fear of not being “enough” and I came to realize that I am enough, that I cannot do it all, and I am not supposed to. We need each other in order to succeed and create meaningful, sustainable social change. By building communities of practice we learn from one another and participate in valuable dialogue that can only be had if we reach out and ask for help.
As my group and I continue our work towards helping create inclusive communities, I would like to restate my commitment to the Global MINDS values and promise to uphold them both globally, and locally. As I journey to become a global mind, it is important that I do not lose sight of the big picture, and that I continue to work together with my team on building a collective sense of purpose. For anyone looking to get into this field, I can say that it is really easy to get caught up in the small stuff – keep moving forward, keep being disruptive, dare to be different. The world in which we live and the challenges with which we are faced are complex, but we already have the answer – each other. We do not necessarily need bigger and better, we just need to leverage each other’s strengths and challenge the status quo. We must learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, to not be afraid to fail, for as I have learned, even in failure there is a great amount of success.
About Jessica Carswell:
Jessica is a 4th year undergraduate student completing her honours specialization in Psychology at Western University. She also works full-time at the Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex, in the Community Wellness Programs department. Throughout her academic and professional career, Jessica has developed a strong interest in mental health, wellness promotion, and community development. She has focused her undergraduate research efforts on the various uses of mindfulness meditation techniques to enhance mental health and wellbeing. While participating in the Global MINDS Summer Institute in Machakos, Kenya, Jessica and her team members worked together to create VisAbility Kenya, a volunteer-based initiative that will recruit university students from the community to help run meaningful activities for people, with and without mental illness, to participate in, and provide basic mental health and human rights education to the public. Jessica will work with her team and community partners over the next year to implement and evaluate this project.
About the GMFP SnapShot Blog:
Through the SnapShot Blog, the Global MINDS Fellowship Program Fellows will share real-time, insightful and authentic reflections regarding their experiences with the program and their progress of implementing and evaluation their solutions. Each month, our Kenyan and Canadian Fellows will both contribute to the blog. You can learn more about the GMFP here!
