What Is How Full Is Your Cup?
Program Overview
- Peer-to-peer campaign
- Focuses on the negative impact of stress and healthy coping skills
- For middle school and high school students
- Can be implemented according to your school's needs
- Program Materials: implementation guide, stadium or tumbler cups, banner
Example of How Full Is Your Cup? tumbler cups.
Lawson CIA members have been concerned about their student body when it comes to dealing with life’s pressures, demands and traumas. To help their peers not engage in risky behaviors, withdraw, substance use, violence and other unhealthy ways to deal with stress, they developed the “How Full is Your Cup?” campaign.
Why This Campaign?
Lawson CIA members wanted their peers to know that:
- There is a reason they are struggling – and not because they are “weak” or that something is wrong with them-but because they are carrying more than their minds/bodies are designed to handle.
- Stress/loss is a normal part of life that affects everyone in one way or another, and
- They are encouraged and supported to talk about and seek help for those stressors so they are able to take better care of themselves.
The Message
- I have a cup and it fills up.
- My cup fills up differently than anyone else’s.
- I can learn to empty my cup.
Photo illustration by Sepi Tajima at https://sepitajima.com/how-to-understand-and-prevent-emotional-and-mental-overload/.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below!
Example of HFIYC Campaign Week
Here’s an example of what your campaign week could look like!
Monday
All students watched a video made by CIA members that demonstrated the cup analogy and explains the activities for the week. Each student gets a cup with the campaign logo and “fullness” indicators . Each cup has a colored piece of paper that prompts them to write down what fills their cups (stressors). Local and national resources are provided in the cup, as well.
Tuesday
Students who bring back their pieces of paper get their cups filled with hot chocolate. The pieces of paper that has each student’s stressor (anonymous) are displayed on the wall display of the cup.
Wednesday
A scavenger hunt was created that included a handout that prompts students to find answers to questions about healthy ways to empty their cup.
Thursday
Students will be asked to fill out white pieces of paper that ask them to write down healthy ways to empty their cups. As the day goes on, the colored pieces of paper inside the wall display of the cup cover the colored pieces of paper (that had each student’s stressor) showing “white space” as the cup empties.
Friday
Students viewed a follow up video of student interviews and footage of participation of the campaign’s activities. There was also a hashtag promotion for an Instagram contest.
