Give an Hour

IDEAS joined forces with the nonprofit organization Give an Hour to create marketing tools for its National Awakening Campaign.

The campaign asks mental health professionals nationwide to donate an hour of their time weekly to provide free mental health services to military personnel and their families.

The Give an Hour team wanted to create media to spread awareness of what the public can do to help. After much research, they found veterans willing to tell their stories on camera through personal interviews.

We paid serious attention to how to shoot the interviews, what questions to ask and what stories to record to achieve the video’s goal. The result was a long emotional day of shooting.

Next, we put together an eight-minute piece that Give an Hour will show to a variety of audiences. It will build awareness and help the public know where to go to learn more and assist where possible.

Additionally, we produced PSAs for nationwide airing.

Recognition

The project received a Telly Award in the Health and Wellness category. The Telly Awards is a premier award honoring outstanding local, regional and national video and film productions and web commercials.

In February of 2010, Women’s Day Magazine named founder Dr. Van Dahlen one of the 50 Women Who Are Changing the World. The list also included the likes of Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey.

Then in 2012, Time Magazine named Dr. Van Dahlen one of its 100 most influential people in the world.

Give an Hour (www.giveanhour.org) is a nonprofit organization providing free mental health services to U.S. military personnel and families affected by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Currently, more than 4,400 licensed mental health professionals are on its network in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. Give an Hour aims to recruit 40,000 — or 10% — of the nation’s 400,000 mental health professionals to its cause.