Juanita Agboola crowdfunding with University of Essex

Mental well-being app for University students.

A short summary of your project

I am raising £2500 to build a Mental well-being app targeted at University students.The app will focus on collecting data around anxiety and stress over a set time-frame and will observe how it affects the participants whilst providing insights to help them.

The main features of the app will be as follows:

Identifying situations where the user wants to reduce anxiety or stress.
Educating on how to think and how lifestyle contributes to anxiety and stress.
Providing options on how to reduce anxiety and stress.

Who AM I AND WHY I DO THIS?

I am a third year student who studies Business Management and who is enthusiastic about helping people, especially to do with mental health. In December 2015 I set up a social enterprise to do with mental health called Half Full Not Empty (HFNE). So far HFNE has ran successful workshops within schools and a public workshop in London. After doing some research through social media sites and surveys, I believe the next step is to make something tangible for students to use on the go to continuously benefit their mental health. I am a personable individual who enjoys making a difference in the lives of young people. Through my experience with working with young people, both young adults and early years; I have learnt how to communicate with them effectively, how to keep them engaged and how to arrange activities in order for the group to learn new skills and enhance their social skills by engaging with their peers. I also run a social Enterprise called Hall full never empty which focused on mental well being.

I feel it is important for undergraduates to be provided mental support in different variations aside from what is already available. Self help apps have grown in statue and I feel one which focuses on the exact problems students go through especially during exam season will assist more student to be more productive and overcome exam stress & anxiety.

During the start up phases of HFNE I conjured up some data and realised that not only did 1 in 4 students suffer from mental health issues but many of those students did not ask for help or did not know where to get help from. After the several suicides in Bristol university (6 suicides in one academic year) it became evident that to prevent these stats being the same in the University of Essex It is essential for students to have a tool they can look to. This is why I believe Unibuddy is needed.

Where will the money go?

The minimum donation will cover the cost of a bet app and 1 hackathon event where we would test our the functionality and user experience.
Breakdown of cost: 1)£2000- cost for 1 full stack developer 2) £100-1 hackathon testing event 3)£50/day- Beta tester 4)£200- Ux designer delivering full design spec.