About JED Campus

What is JED Campus?

JED Campus is an initiative of The Jed Foundation designed to empower schools with a framework and customized support to enhance student well-being and substance abuse and suicide prevention efforts. By becoming a member of JED Campus, a school demonstrates its commitment to the emotional well-being of its students. JED Campus schools embark on a multi-year strategic collaboration that not only assesses and enhances the work that is already being done, but helps create positive, lasting, systemic change in the campus community.

How does the program work?

• Establish an interdisciplinary, campus-wide team to engage in the JED Campus program.
• Collaborate with experts from JED over a period of three to four years to identify opportunities for enhancement of emotional health and substance abuse and suicide prevention efforts.
• Take an in-depth, confidential assessment, at the beginning of the program and then again after three years, assessing current mental health promotion, substance abuse and suicide prevention efforts.
• Survey students using the Healthy Minds Survey to examine student attitudes, awareness and behavior related to mental health issues both at the beginning of the program and then again after three years.
• Receive a campus visit from a JED team members to discuss the feedback report, generate improvement goals and develop action steps that serve as a roadmap to implement change on campus. Following the post-assessment, the SME will again meet with the interdisciplinary team to discuss sustainability of implemented campus change.
• Receive ongoing support from a dedicated JED Campus Advisor who provides guidance and resources to help each school achieve its goals.
• Are able to access the JED Campus Learning Community that includes webinars, newsletters, a discussion board, and an in-depth, on-line resource library.
• Receive the JED Campus membership seal signifying their commitment to student well-being.

Is there any data to support this type of approach?

The JED Campus Framework is based upon The Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention on College and University Campuses, which was developed and reviewed by multiple experts in mental health and higher education and is considered a consensus best practice by the AFSP/SPRC best practice registry (for more information: https://www.jedcampus.org/our-approach/). This model is based on the Air Force suicide prevention program, which has been shown to decrease rates of suicide, homicide and accidental deaths. The JED Campus Framework combines the content of the Comprehensive Model with expert recommendations regarding factors related to preventing substance abuse in young adults.

How is JED Campus different from what colleges are already doing?

While many schools have adopted elements of the JED Campus approach and a number have based their mental health support systems upon it, it is only partially implemented at a significant number of colleges. Most schools provide direct counseling services, yet, often there is not a holistic, campus-wide approach to mental health. Schools that already demonstrate a comprehensive approach to mental health on campus report that participation in JED Campus alerted them to areas for improvement that they did not realize they had and further strengthened their policies, systems, programs and practices. All schools benefit from the process of completing the self-assessment, the feedback provided in their reports and the ability to learn and network with other JED Campus schools through the learning community. Participation in the program can support all schools in exploring new ideas for enhancing the great work in progress, and finding innovating ways to support the emotional well-being of their students. Finally, the analysis of the pre- and post- JED Campus and Healthy Minds Study assessments provide schools with evidence of the impact of systems change on student outcomes.

² Schools participate at-will and can choose to be anonymous in the program or opt-out at any time. With anonymity, survey results will be aggregated and de-identified, as is the case with all Campus Program participants.