In May 2021, to mark the launch of Mental Health Awareness Month, On Our Sleeves, the national movement for children’s mental health, set an ambitious goal to provide free mental health resources to more than 1 million teachers and classrooms across America. Just five months later, they surpassed that ambitious goal, reaching more than 1.1 million classrooms.

Big Lots, a strong national sponsor and longtime partner of the movement joined as the Million Classroom Project’s first corporate partner, setting an ambitious goal of getting On Our Sleeves materials into 150,000 schools.

In today's episode, Engage for Good's Alli Murphy is joined by Marti Bledsoe Post, Executive Director of On Our Sleeves, and Jeremy Ball, Vice President Internal Communications, Philanthropy and Events, at Big Lots to talk about the partnership and what they've learned along the way.

Tune into today's episode to learn all about:

• Marti's advice for securing corporate partners in historically "taboo" cause areas
• Jeremy's advice on corporate advocacy and how to get started
• What the On Our Sleeves Movement and the Million Classroom Project are
• How Big Lots is involved in the partnerships
• How the team refocused the One Our Sleeves mission and strategy amid the pandemic
• What's on the horizon for the partnership

Links & Notes

• [On Our Sleeves Website] (https://www.onoursleeves.org/)
• [Big Lots Website] (https://www.biglots.com/)
• [Big Lots Community Page] (https://www.biglots.com/corporate/community)

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• (00:00) - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio