BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Stay-at-home orders and other precautions against the coronavirus couldn’t stop organizers of the Kelley Impact Competition from moving forward to help the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.
This is the 10th anniversary of the Kelley Institute for Social Impact, which organized the case competition for socially-minded undergraduate students. It’s also the second year for the event, which last year aided Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County.
The top three teams receive monetary prizes, but more importantly, the winning team also receives $10,000 in seed money to support their idea and hopefully create lasting change for the client, which this year was the greater Bloomington chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Teams were asked to identify strategies that will increase the impact that the local NAMI chapter will have on the community and come up with methods to expand the reach of its message and grow its base of supporters and volunteers.
Last fall, Kelley 2011 alumnus Lance Breitstein, whose gift made the competition possible, asked the focus to be on mental health and wellness.
As part of its “Decade of Difference” celebration, the competition – which is open to all undergraduates at IU Bloomington — originally was scheduled to cap off a week of activities. As it became apparent in March that the coronavirus was going to affect campus activities, organizers moved it to April 24 and online.
Ten of the 12 original teams – each consisting of four students – remained committed. During the competition, they used Zoom to log in from all over the world — from India and China – as well as from all across the country – from Florida, California, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New York – and, of course, Indiana. Also tuning in were 13 judges who included alumni and community partners. (more…)