The Virtual Vanguard: Snapchat’s Club Unity

With Gen Z sitting in online lectures, operating their extracurriculars online, graduating from Zoom University ‘21, and even starting new WFH jobs, we know that Gen Z have more than earned the title of “digital natives.” It has been a strenuous, but exciting past few months, with life transitioning between URL and IRL experiences and the world pivoting towards the future of metaverses and Web 3.0 connectivity. So when we partnered with Snap Inc. and Active Minds to create their first-ever Club Unity Summit for mental health awareness, we wanted to make the unique virtual experience as human and as tangible as possible for young students tuning in online from across the country.

Club Unity—a board of young leaders from different industries launched earlier this month—was created to support Gen Z voices and empower them to address the generation’s most critical topics. The roster includes the humanitarian and former fashion model Halima Aden, musicians and actresses Chloe x Halle, actor Rickey Thompson, Atlanta Hawks basketball player Trae Young, dancer Maddie Ziegler, and led by Snap Original star Yusuf Omar.

Our first objective was to produce intentional programming that would equip university students to go out into the world and help their peers through mental health struggles. To understand what kind of content to include in the summit, we took to social media to go straight to the source. On Snapchat Stories, we asked Gen Z users to reply with how they felt and what they wished someone had taught them about mental health. The overwhelming response was that Gen Z wanted to see more concrete resources and accessible language in the discourse on mental health.

We jam-packed the summit with education and resources and centered workshops around practices, tools, and processes that would provide students with the means to be changemakers in their communities. All attendees also had the opportunity to be officially certified by non-profit Active Minds in Validate, Appreciate, ReferⓇ, a tool for helping friends in everyday challenges through active listening and specific language.

The half-day summit was also hosted on OhYay, a design platform made for immersive virtual events. Through OhYay, we created high-touch and inviting “rooms” to inspire the attendees to participate in every session. Students and talent added their insights to every conversation throughout the day using OhYay’s interactive features like text and voice chat.

Beyond raising awareness about mental health, we wanted to provide the students with as many tactile, tangible resources to carry with them after the end of the virtual summit. To aid students in charting their mental self-care journey, we created a workbook with exercises and information to draw on for motivation. We tapped illustrator and designer Boyeon Choi to bring the workbook to life with her bold and bright graphics on every page for students to admire.

We are particularly proud of this project, especially with its focus on such an essential and intimate topic for a generation that’s truly changing the cultural landscape. It was beyond inspiring to watch attendees and talent venture through the sessions, having meaningful conversations that undoubtedly evolved the way we collectively talk about mental health.

Though live events are becoming a reality again post-lockdown, virtual events will continue to evolve as a viable option for communities to meet and engage with one another. If you’re interested in how to create intimate and compelling online events for your community, drop us a line!

With love,

Micki ❤️