Third in a series (Links below to the first two parts)

By JOHN KEREZY

CLEVELAND, June 27 – The League for Innovation in Community Colleges (League) has recognized Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) for a second time for the college’s commitment and resources about mental health, wellness, and suicide prevention.

The League awarded Tri-C with its 2024-2025 Innovation of the Year honor for the development of a mobile application (app) for its “Help Is Here” resources. Hundreds of Tri-C students have downloaded the mobile app on their smartphones. and have all of its resources available with the flick of a finger on their mobile devices.

“Our students are dealing with a lot of issues. Anxiety and depression are all too common,” says Kevin Kuntz, professor of counseling at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus. “Sometimes many of the negative factors all come together, and we could end up with situations where students become a danger to themselves, or worse.

“That’s why the Help Is Here app becomes so vital.” Kuntz adds. “It’s an ‘off-ramp’ for students, and they can use it any time they need help. They can access many of the Help is Here resources without even talking with us.”

Help Is Here is an ongoing program which Tri-C has offered to its students for more than 10 years. It was developed in part as a response to HB 28, which became law in Ohio in 2016. HB 28 requires public colleges and universities to develop mental health resources – including about depression and suicide prevention — for their students. Sadly, many colleges haven’t followed up on the law’s intent.

“We’ve conducted research on 35 colleges and universities in Ohio and other states. Some of them have no easy-to-find mental health resources,” says David Nardecchia, assistant professor of counseling at Tri-C.  “Some have ‘bare bones’ things, like a box on  website where’s the just a phone number for a local community health center.”

Going well beyond the law

Years before HB 28 passed the Ohio General Assembly, Tri-C counselors were giving handouts and holding informational sessions about mental wellness with faculty and staff at the college. Many of these materials eventually were digitized, and later still (around 2018) the college established a single web site, www.tri-c.edu/helpishere for general mental health information and for Tri-C employee resources (including classroom activities, a student resource guide, the IMPACT Employee Assistance Program, and more.)

Embedded within HelpIsHere’s website is a Mental Health Guide, a tool which can help students learn about diagnoses, how to take a screening, and helpful vocabulary designed to decrease the stigma associated with mental health. A photograph of a card to the guide, which includes a QR code for instant access to the material, is above.

Needed: An App as well

By the end of the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was apparent to counselors and those involved with mental wellness that students and adults were relying more and more on their smartphones for information. According to the website explodingtipics.com, people in 2025 spend an average of 4 hours and 37 minutes a day on their phones, checking them 58 times a day.

The Help Is Here team wanted to develop a way to put the entire array of its services and information on a mobile app. Fortunately, they received significant assistance to do in their own backyard.

Individually and collectively, Tri-C staff and faculty have been heightening awareness of mental health issues and striving to assist students.  For example, Dr. Michelle Nicopolis, professor of psychology, has been instrumental in presenting a Wellness Fest at the college’s West Campus and having the Psychology Club involved in mental health activities with students. Members of the Help Is Here group make presentations to students, faculty, administrators and the general public about mental wellness. Professor Nardecchia is on the board of the Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health, operated out of the Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Dr. Charles Dull, Dean, Computer Science, heard about HIH and wanted to help spread the word about the mental wellness array of services and resources.

“Chuck (Dr. Dull) asked me ‘could our students make an app (for this)?’,” recalls Thandeka Cox, Information Technology Center of Excellence program manager at Tri-C. “At that time (Fall 2024) making mobile apps wasn’t a part of our software development academy.”

But Cox agreed that it was worth a try, so she collaborated with Wayne Largent, an adjunct faculty member at Tri-C and an instructor with Cleveland Codes.

A part of Cuyahoga Community College’s IT program, Cleveland Codes is a 14-week software developers’ academy. Housed in Tri-C’s School of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering, and Computer Science, it teaches students skills necessary for a career in web development. Students develop key the ability to do:

• Object-oriented programming
• Back-end and front-end web development
• Relational database systems 
• Technical interviewing and career development 

But first, Largent and Cox had some research to do. “Initially we were going to do only an iOS application for the Apple App Store,” Cox recalls. “But Chuck said no, he didn’t want to exclude anybody from benefitting from the App.”

So, Cox and Largent came across React Native, an open-source, JavaScript framework for building native mobile applications for iOS, Android, as well as other platforms. They learned about its capabilities and challenged a team of students in Cleveland Codes to work within React Native and come up with the App for both major mobile platforms.

Students Ebuka Lawrence, Cara Ebel-Colker, and Paul Jancura rose to the challenge. Initially Largent believed the iOS app would come first, but that’s not how it turned out. “The students were all for it, and within months they were glad to develop it and set it up there in both the Apple and Android Play Store,” Largent says.  “Everyone was surprised when we had it ready for both Apps in December.”

For the Cleveland Codes students, it was a pleasant experience to see their work put into practice so quickly.

“When we went to the unveiling of the App, we had no words to describe how impressed we were,” recalls Nardecchia. “It was so intuitive for the users, and it contained all the information we wanted for ‘Help Is Here’ with just one click after it was installed on both iPhones and Android devices.”

One great benefit of the App is that anyone — Tri-C students and staff and the general public — can access the App and benefit from its one-click array of resource and help. Below are the QR codes that enable anyone to place HELP IS HERE on their phones. (Editor’s Note: I had it on mine.)

For Apple:

For Android:

ODHE Support

The Ohio Dept. of Higher Education provided the Help Is Here with a $360,000 grant to support the program. It was utilized primarily with a ‘Top Tier Influencer’ program to provide stipends to students who heavily promoted HIH.  They sponsored and held “tabletop” type appearances as sports events, many campus activities, and at special events such as the Wellness Fest. (See photo at the top of this story.)

The influencers always have the QR codes to share with students, and to talk it up with students. The Tip Tier Influencers also discussed and promoted the mind-and-body relaxation activities which are embedded within the App.

Grant monies also helped pay for visibility items, such as pop-up awareness shades (put up on all campus locations). There are also HIH-branded Yoga mats and exercise mats, all designed to heighten awareness about the program.

“These items help spread the word, not just about the Help Is Here program, but also about self-care and the importance of helping others,” Nardecchia adds.

Below is link to the award description: 

https://www.league.org/2024-2025-innovation-year-award-winner-cuyahoga-community-college

About HB 28, which took effect in Ohio in 2016:
https://suicideprevention.ohio.gov/for-schools/colleges-and-universities/02-colleges-and-universities#:~:text=House%20Bill%2028,of%20a%20person%20to%20suicide

Founded in 1968, the League for Innovation in Community Colleges is an international nonprofit organization with a mission to cultivate innovation in the community college environment. It is based in Chandler, Ariz. Here is its website:  https://www.league.org/

Link to Part II of the series: https://wp.me/p6cQl4-VA

Link to Part I of the series: https://wp.me/p6cQl4-Vf