HeartSupport, Inc.

Create communities that encourage personal progress and self-love:
--> Recruit influencers to share their personal struggles with their followers
--> Start authentic conversations about current internal struggles and past pain
--> Encourage others to take action to better their mental and spiritual health
--> Help others grow by connecting with others, deepening understanding of themselves, developing positive coping habits, believing the truth, and cultivating self-love

Our community leverages the vulnerability of our staff and partnered music and stream influencers to create an atmosphere of vulnerability where users feel comfortable opening up about their personal struggles. The goal is to get people to talk, encourage them when they do, and help them take steps to improve. By continuing in relationship and cycling between conversation and action, conversation and action, we can help individuals create a positive spiral of growth in their lives that moves them towards freedom and self-love.

1) Create conversations
--> Recruit influencers; capture and share their stories (through our blog and videos)
--> Create conversations across our online platforms (on our forum and live stream)

2) Encourage action
--> Develop recovery programs for particular mental health struggles (self-harm in 2017, depression in 2018, faith/doubt in 2018)
--> Offer free and low-cost counseling

3) Repeat the cycle and reflect on growth
--> Collect success stories from users about the positive growth they've seen in their lives as influenced by HeartSupport and its communities

1) Creating conversations
--> Founded by Influencer: Our founder, Jake Luhrs, is a Grammy-nominated musician who leverages his own influence to create conversations with his fans and to recruit other influencers to join the cause
--> Trust of Influencers: The influencers have cultivated the respect and trust of their following and leverage that relational capital to create conversations by first sharing their own stories
--> Top Videographers: Our videographers who capture the influencer's stories used to run a Discovery channel show and are sponsored by Black Magic cameras; they have top-of-industry skill and gear
--> Top Stream: Our videographers also leverage their skill and gear to run our live stream, which is ranked in the top 0.7% of 2.2m stream channels on Twitch.tv
--> Custom-Built Forum: Our forum, where many conversations happen, was custom-built to ensure anonymity (which encourages first time use) and enhance usability (which encourages repeat use)

2) Encourage action
--> Written By Storyteller: Our programs are all written by Ben Sledge, who is a certified Top Writer of viral content on Medium.com, which enhances the readability of each program because of their top-tier storytelling
--> Built With Counselors: All of our programs are co-written with Dr. Michelle Saari, licensed professional counselor in the Department of Corrections in the State of Minnesota, who helps optimize the positive impact of each program
--> Spread Through Influencers: Some of our programs are co-written with influencers, which increase the number of people taking action through those programs

3) Repeat the cycle and reflect on growth
--> Accessibility Enhancing Relationship: Because our stream is live for 27 hours a week and our forum and chat communities are mobile-friendly and accessible 24/7, we stay connected with our community and develop relationships that over time cycle from conversation to action and so forth.

Impact Milestones:
--> 15m All-Time Minutes of Encouragement with 8m from 2018 where people are told they are not alone and they are worthy of love
--> 34k All-Time Authentic Conversations where people step out of isolation and into loving community
--> 97k Miles Driven and 104k People Talk To at concerts and festivals from 2013-2018
--> 10k Recovery Programs in the hands of people who need them
--> 400+ User-Reported Success Stories celebrating the growth they've experienced through our community

Accolades:
--> Awarded "Artist Philanthropic Award" at Alternative Press Music Awards in 2016 for best artist-led non-profit initiative in the alternative music scene
--> Chosen as Top 100 Finalist for Most Socially Innovative Non-Profit at 2017 Classy Awards from a contest of 4,000 non-profits

What's Next:
--> Expand influencer recruiting
--> Add features to forum to improve user retention
--> Develop world's largest mental health music festival