Reflections
Hackathon for Depression

Hackathon to create awareness for Depression in Immigrant and Refugee communities. Hosted by 1951 Coffee, and Thon X
It was an amazing twelve hour workspace. Where folks from multiple disciplines came together to work on tackling a cause- increasing awareness around Depression in Immigrant and Refugee communities. There were so many great ideas and lots of passion in the room.
Before the participants got to work, they volunteered to engage in a demonstration of the RICHER model. The participants volunteered to share some work that reflect how they felt. This is the pre and post reflection of how they felt in their mind, body and spirit.
Below is a word bible that summarized the expression of the participants pre and post the session
Before the RICHER Model
After the RICHER Model 
For more information on bringing the RICHER Model to your communities for social impact complete this form
Reflections and gratitude- The journey of the 2015 Caroline Plummer Dance Fellow

I am finally here in Aotearoa!!!!!
I am ecstatic about this moment. I remember when I was informed about this fellowship and I thought to myself ” This is perfect for me and I must go for it” and then the self doubt began. Am I good enough? What about my full time job? What about my living arrangements? Would they care for what an African woman living in the U.S has to say? Would they care that I am not a trained classical dancer? Would they care that I am not a stick figured dancer? What if they don’t understand my accent? Are there black people there? (this was before I found out the meaning of black in Aotearoa is different from where I live). I pushed through all the doubts and moved forward with the application. The application process was much simpler than I had expected. I had to send in a proposal about what I planned on doing through a paper and an unedited video. I had so much anxiety around making the video. I looked through youtube and could not find any previous winners of the fellowship posted. I had one week left to go before the deadline and no video. A friend suggested the interview style I used which made it less nerve racking and it worked. I had sent in numerous proposals which all got rejected so why would this time be different? sent it in with crossed fingers hoping they wouldn’t judge all the background noise and my hair (its a black girl thing to be worried about the perception of the hair). It was less than perfect but because of the timeline, I sent it in anyway. I prayed that it would be selected. I envisioned myself jumping up and down from hearing the good news. Once it was submitted, the anxiety dissipated and all I had control over was my mantras, visualizations and positive thoughts.