When Engineering senior Aria Thakore and LSA senior Aastha Dharia roomed together as freshmen at the University of Michigan, they noticed a lot of their peers struggled with the transition to college, turning to their friends or to other students for advice. “We always wanted to be that ear for them,” Dharia said. “But it was really hard to sometimes have those conversations without having had those experiences.” As the year went on and more of their friends reached out to them, Thakore and Dharia said it became increasingly difficult to support their friends while also maintaining their own well-being. But it wasn’t until Thakore went home that April that she realized it had become too much to manage on her own. “I checked my phone and I had nine text messages from nine different people, asking for peer support,” Thakore said. “It was that moment where I was like ‘I’m at home, I’m walking my dog, I want a moment to myself and I can’t manage this anymore.’” From there, Thakore and Dharia, along with their friends from high school LSA senior Sheily Shah and Public Health senior Swathi Sampath, began working on a nonprofit organization, hEARt Listens, to address this need. “It was really weird to have so many people talking about the same problem,” Shah said. “But it was like a never-ending conversation. There wasn’t any solution to it.” The hEARt Line, which officially launched Feb. 10, was their solution. The text line is open noon to midnight every day of the week, and students can send an anonymous text at any time and get connected with a trained peer supporter within 48 hours. The process is free and open to all University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus students. “We were able to figure out that students really like turning to other students first,” Dharia said. “Students also want to be able to help other students, but it was really hard for them to know how to do that while also prioritizing their own well- being.” Before becoming a peer supporter, students have to go through a semester of training, which consists of weekly sessions focused on different skills such as motivational interviewing, navigating resistance and how to tackle difficult issues such as sexual assault. The founders worked with Social Work professor Lindsay Bornheimer to develop this training program. According to peer supporter LSA senior Divya Gumudavelly, once students text the helpline, they are connected with a trained peer supporter who feels comfortable navigating the particular topic of conversation. “(Having peer supporters) eliminates the power structure that can sometimes exist between someone who is seeking help and someone who is trying to offer help,” Gumudavelly said. “You’re talking to somebody who is coming from a place that is, hopefully, somewhat similar to yours because at the end of the day, we’re all the same age and we’re all students.” To get a better idea of the mental health climate on campus, the four founders spent nearly a year talking to students across campus to assess their needs. They found many students felt current resources were difficult to access, and they were not aware of all of the possible resources available to them. “There have been times when it’s been very disheartening,” Sampath said. “It’s kind of hard to keep going through the process hearing about how present a lot of the issues and challenges that we faced or our peers faced really (are) on campus.” The founders worked with Christine Asidao, associate director of community engagement and outreach for Counseling and Psychological Services, as well as other resources such as the Spectrum Center, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and Wolverine Wellness to ensure hEARt Listens is a known and available resource for all students. The founders said the nonprofit also serves as a gateway to other resources on campus. “We spend workshops just talking about other resources on campus we can direct (students) to,” Gumudavelly said. “This is another reason I really like hEARt, because it’s not trying to reinvent the wheel.” Public Policy senior Hannah Connors is the executive director of Wolverine Support Network, a student organization on campus focused on creating an inclusive community for students. Like hEARt Listens, WSN is a peer- based resource. According to Connors, there is a lot of research that speaks to the effectiveness of peer support, especially for young people, who tend to go to their peers first. WSN offers weekly support groups but does not currently have the online component that the hEARt Line provides. “I think it’s an amazing idea because texting is probably the least intimidating form of communication,” Connors said. “I think it’s really going to benefit students who might feel too intimidated to make a counseling center appointment.” Though the idea for hEARt Listens started their freshman year, now that the four founders are seniors, they are working on passing the leadership role on to younger students. LSA freshman Nidhi Tigadi is one of the students stepping up to leadership in hEARt Listens. 2 — Thursday, February 20, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News TUESDAY: By Design FRIDAY: Behind the Story WEDNESDAY: This Week in History MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers THURSDAY: Twitter Talk Lauren @laurboh Now feels like a good time to remind everyone who told me to stop complaining about and booing Mike Bloomberg’s commencement speech at my Umich graduation: I told you so Bridgette Carr @Bridgette_Carr @Umich is in the news right now for cases of sexual misconduct. My hope is that we can be in the news for dismantling the systems that allowed this abuse to take place. One key step is to include survivors in the process. Can we rise to be the Leaders and Best? I hope so. Elayna @elaynaswift my biggest pet peeve is when people call umich “michigan university”, especially if you go here?? 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