The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) has an ambitious mission: to stop stigma surrounding mental health issues. For the Walk In Our Shoes program, the team created a campaign to prevent stigma from forming in the first place. Staggering statistics revealed huge gaps in knowledge about mental health among 9- to 13-year-olds. This impressionable age group just wasn’t getting accurate information about mental health. We wanted to give kids a chance to understand mental health issues by picturing life in someone else’s shoes. By animating and bringing to life true stories as told by the actual young people, this campaign created empathy and understanding that mental health challenges are something most of face on a daily basis.

We discovered the power of real stories from youth who are working through their own mental health challenges created understanding and empathy among our target of young people. The creative team created animated story videos using the audio of the actual person telling their personal story. We then engaged young artists and animators, pairing their unique styles with each equally unique story, producing a series of videos that explained the challenges each of these young persons faced. Each story incorporates hope and solutions to help guide our audience.

When children are placed into child care services it can be a frightening and traumatic time in their young lives. The creative team, along with child care specialists, created a graphic novel that helped explain the process and provide guidance.