Cultural Mental Health Competition

General Information:

Prompt: People associate culture with different languages, traditions, foods, and individual beliefs and values. However, a person’s culture may also significantly impact their mental health, both positively and negatively. Scientists and researchers have found that because cultures among a community vary, the choice to seek help, the type of help and resources used, and how that culture’s community discusses mental health may be greatly affected as well. Many different factors influence the way cultures to perceive and approach mental health and its effects on a person individually. So the real question is, how does culture affect mental health and how can we help fix the negativity around it?

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:

Competition may be done individually or in small groups with no more than 4 people.
The project submission must be related to cultural mental health.
Plagiarism- in any form- will count in automatic disqualification from the competition.
Must be ages 13-23 to participate.
Submissions are due March 26th, 2020, at 11:59 pm PDT.
Pay $5 to Venmo or PayPal
- Venmo ID: @sim2020 (www.venmo.com/u/sim2020)
- PayPal: paypal.me/prishat
ONLY ONE SUBMISSION PER CATEGORY (only 1 essay submission, 1 art submission, or 1 documentary/video submission)

For Individual category requirements click the "Learn More" button.

All proceeds will be given to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Organization:

https://www.nami.org/home

Essay

Essay Requirements:

Essay Format:
- MLA Format
- Font: Times New Roman
- Font Size 12
- Double Spaced
Essay must be a minimum of 400 words and a maximum of 500 words
Essay must provide background evidence on how culture influences mental health (what it is).
Essay must explain how culture negatively and positively affects mental health (provide examples).
Essay must provide a minimum of 2 quantitative statistics (max 4) as to how culture has affected mental health within your community/country. Explain the significance of the statistics and why it matters.
Essay must include a call to action/a plan to raise awareness and how to make a change within your community to prevent culture from negatively affecting your mental health.
Include a Works Cited Page (separate from the essay and 500 words) for any information/statistics:
- Must be in MLA Citation Format
- Websites that help with MLA Citations:
Optional: Personal Connection (short anecdote as an introduction)

*Contact us if you have any issues with the MLA Citation requirement.

ART

Art Requirements:

The art piece can be one of the following:
- Paintings or drawings (any medium)
  - Minimum 8x11 (inches) / 20x28 (centimeters)
- Digital art (excluding infographics, no templates)
- Photography
  - Several photos arranged in some way/collage
  - Photo Arrangement/Collage must be a minimum of 6 photos and a max of 12 photos.
- Sculpture/3D Art:
  - When taking pictures, include multiple angles of the art piece (front, left side, right side, back, and from the top)
All art MUST be original
5-7 sentence caption explaining the artwork
- Please make sure to include:
  - Title of the art piece
  - Provide background evidence on how culture influences mental health (what it is).
  - How culture negatively and positively affects mental health (provide examples).
  - Art captions must include a call to action/a plan to raise awareness and how to make a change within your community to prevent culture from negatively affecting your mental health.
Caption Format:
- Font: Times New Roman
- Font Size: 12
- Double Spaced
Provide an MLA Citation page for the caption:
- Must be in MLA Citation Format
- Websites that help with MLA Citations:
  - https://www.citationmachine.net/mla8/cite-a-website
  - https://www.easybib.com/mla8/source
- How to follow MLA format:
  - https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_introduction.html

*Contact us if you have any issues with the MLA Citation requirement.

DOCUMENTARY/VIDEO:

Documentary/Video Requirements:

Documentary/Video must be around 2:30-5 minutes.
One person must be visible for 90% of the video
- B-roll (less than 10% of the video) should include a voice over explanation
When submitting include a transcript of the script used in the documentary/video.
Documentary/Video must have a clear visual representation (non-pixelated and not blurry)
The speech used in the documentary/video must be clear.
The clothing style used in the documentary/video is appropriate, preferably semi-formal, or formal.
General Inclusions:
- Documentary/Video must provide background evidence on how culture influences mental health (what it is).
- The documentary/Video must include how culture negatively and positively affects mental health (provide examples).
- The documentary/Video must provide a minimum of 2 quantitative statistics (max 4) as to how culture has affected mental health within your community/country. Explain the significance of the statistics and why it matters.
- Documentary/Video must include a call to action/a plan to raise awareness and how to make a change within your community to prevent culture from negatively affecting your mental health.
Include a Works Cited Page for any information/statistics:
- Must be in MLA Citation Format
- Websites that help with MLA Citations:
Optional: Personal Connection (short anecdote as an introduction)

*Contact us if you have any issues with the MLA Citation requirement.

Prizes

First Place:

Each submission category will have one first-place winner (i.e. there will be 3 first places: one for essay, one for art, one for video)
First Place Winners will receive:
- $75 Amazon Gift Card
- Feature on our website with picture and name
- We will also be helping the individual/group enter possible publication platforms. We will work with the individual/team until the submission has been done into the publication platform to attempt to achieve a possible publication.

*Prizes will be given out to the primary email left on the form. If there is more than one person in a team, it is up to the team to distribute the prize in their terms.

Second Place:

Each submission category will have one second-place winner (i.e. there will be 3 first places: one for essay, one for art, one for video)
Second Place Winners will receive:
- Feature on our website with picture and name
- We will also be helping the individual/group enter possible publication platforms. We will work with the individual/team until the submission has been done into the publication platform to attempt to achieve a possible publication.