This project was created as part of a social media campaign for the New York State Office of Mental Health's during Mental Health Awareness Month. The campaign's goal was to highlight some of the lesser-known pioneers who transformed mental health care to what it is today. This type of public recognition of peer-informed system transformation had never been done before and was meant to show the importance of mental health peers, and advocates.

The graphics are illustrated versions of these real-life advocates- many of whom consider themselves 'psychiatric survivors' - who worked to improve the system of care to be person-centered and inclusive. Depending on the impact they made, we categorized these individuals as "Trailblazers" or "JEDIs"

We launched the campaign on May 4th and played off the "May the 4th be with you" theme while highlighting a different meaning of the term JEDI: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. We then spent the month highlighting who we considered JEDI's, people of color who had important impacts on the mental health system in terms of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. We also focused on the Trailblazers who moved the system forward in other ways.

While brainstorming the best way to showcase these individuals, we knew it was important to show their physical likeness to connect with them as a person, but we didn't possess copyrights to any photographs of them. We decided that illustrated avatars would allow us to not only show their likeness, but also attract a social media user's attention in a unique way. 

The feedback we received from stakeholder groups and peer/advocate groups was resoundingly positive. They told us they felt seen and heard in a way that had never happened before. They appreciated the unique ways we illustrated the people whose resiliency, dedication and determination molded the way we care for the people we serve.