Positivity Outward

Zariah Tolman grew up in a population 50 rural Wyoming town before attending Montana State University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2020 with degrees in Biochemistry and Neuroscience and with minors in Global Health and Biomedical Engineering. A 2019 Truman Scholar, she has spent three years researching a neurodegenerative disease and one year researching compassion fatigue in Ugandan healthcare workers. In the nonprofit sector, she is a volunteer, board member, and summer intern. Also passionate about youth development, she is a three-year track and field coach and high school mentor, and a one-year state-wide service project coordinator for FCCLA. Part-time since 2018 and full-time this next year, she is intersecting these passions of research, youth development, and nonprofit work. She is founding and developing a nonprofit that provides opportunities for youth development and conducts research on the programs’ impact on youth mental health.

Positivity Outward addresses disparities faced by rural youth and rural communities by increasing self-efficacy, or the youth’s beliefs in their capabilities, with a two-step process. First, rural youth are connected to their potential. Students are provided multimedia libraries of self-help and personal development resources along with mentorship to overcome their increased risk of negative behaviors. Second, rural youth are connected to their communities through service opportunities and design-thinking resources to overcome the lack of skill development opportunities and lower community capacity. Time students spend serving is matched with a donation that the student can donate to either a local nonprofit or to a self-designed project. Youth development and community development are interdependent processes, thus increasing self-efficacy inward will equip students to make ripples of positivity outward through service. Both aspects of the program are in an app and website; a prototype is in the application video. 

64% of Montana’s youth, age 10-19 and totaling 150,000, live in rural areas.  According to Health and Human Services, rural youth face several disparities, including fewer skill development opportunities and a lack of programs to facilitate growth. Mentally, rural youth have significantly increased risk of negative behavior; for example, Montana youth suicide is double the national rate. The disparities are then exacerbated due to limited community capacity, including 66% less funds per youth for youth programs and limited access to health services. The geographical isolation and strong ideals of rural communities then create numerous challenges in addressing these problems. Since behavioral risk and youth development are results of complex individual, relationship, and community factors, selecting informative metrics is also difficult. However, self-efficacy is emerging as an informative metric for youth development and community resilience; however, it has not been investigated in Montana youth. 

Our solution targets individual risk factors by focusing on empowering youth. First youth look inward to develop healthy coping and problem-solving skills. Multimedia libraries (paper, Kindle, audio, video) will be curated to the rural school’s demographics and needs, as discussed by a committee composed of students, school administrators, and state administrators. Students will be also provided access to professional resources. College-aged mentors will encourage youth to engage with the content and apply the principles. The mentors work to overcome mental health stigma and help students to set and reflect on 30-day self-care goals. Students who successfully complete their goals will receive special recognition. 

The solution then empowers the youth to develop and apply creative problem-solving outward to community improvement. The same app with the libraries also provides service opportunities ranging from acts of kindness to large projects. Students log and reflect on their service hours in the app, which will match their time spent serving with funds that can be donated to either a local nonprofit or to a self-designed project, which can receive additional resources such as design or implementation help.  
Positivity Outward builds social capital in youth well-being, positive behavior change, and connection with peers and the community. 

Positivity Outward has a 3-component participatory design system to create and maintain an organization centered on rural youth, who live in tightly knit communities that have unique needs that vary from town to town.

The first component is to cultivate partnerships with communities, schools, students, and organizations who have insight into the students’ needs and what is already being done to meet those needs. Communication between all stakeholders, with amplified youth voices, during the lifetime of the nonprofit is critical to ensure needs are being understood and met. Positivity Outward is designed to supplement and work with existing solutions.

The second is to give the students power to choose what they need by providing multiple options for mental health resources, a variety of service opportunities, and unlimited options of self-designed projects.

The third is to have research and evaluation be a priority of the organization. Before the program is launched, self-efficacy and resilience will be measured in schools to determine which schools have the highest need. Then the metrics will be reevaluated after programming to see if those needs were successfully met.

Positivity Outward will be committed to evolving organizationally as needs and opportunities evolve as well. 

Rural students are often left behind. This is apparent across education, technology, and mental health, with the pandemic highlighting these disparities and creating urgency in meeting these needs. Positivity Outward changes youth behavior to be more compassionate, confident, and creative. The program also changes the strong negative stigma surrounding mental illness in small towns to create stronger relationships between students and communities. The ripples of positivity start from within, then move outward to elevate their community and the world. 

I grew up in a town of less than 50 people, and I drove 20 miles to attend school in the closest town of 250 people. I experienced first-hand the limited opportunities and resources that affect rural towns. In high school, I wanted to make a difference, but I did not know how. I lacked resources and support to make my ideas a reality, and I lacked confidence that I could make a difference. This lack of confidence negatively impacted my mental health, and by the time I graduated high school I suffered from severe mental illness. 

I found many opportunities in college that helped me to build my confidence and creativity, and I had the idea of matching service hours with donations at the beginning of my sophomore year, August 2017, after I had written a literature review on the benefits of incorporating positivity into your life. I wanted to emphasize that small acts of kindness mattered, and I realized I could accomplish that by paying kindness forward, literally. I remembered the acts of kindness in high school that took me down from my mental ledge. Positivity Outward has been evolving ever since!

During college in the “big city” of Bozeman (population 50,000), I found my passions for global health and youth development. I volunteered as a pole vault coach for three years at a rural school. In 2018, I traveled to Morocco to teach children French and to Uganda to conduct research. This past year, I partnered with Wyoming FCCLA for a state-wide service project to meet needs of the Ugandan children I knew and loved. 

However, Kristy truly inspired Positivity Outward. I present yearly at a conference for middle school girls from rural Montana on the topic of “How losing my toes helped me to find my passion: turning adversity into strength”. I talk candidly about the motorcycle accident I was in (I lost two toes, broke 10 bones, and have metal in three limbs) and my mental illness. I share that through adversity, I developed grit and resilience and apply them to global health. 

Kristy came up after to say that she had been struggling but she believes she can be strong and would not give up. To me, rural health is global health and both require an inside-out approach--starting in the hearts of Montana youth who have limitless potential. 

I am a rural native driven by empathy and passion, with the background needed to intersect my skills with passion solve rural disparities. I have extensive background in youth development (detail in previous question), research, and the nonprofit sector.

Studying a neurodegenerative disease for three years has prepared me to bring a scientific approach to the nonprofit sector with careful attention to design and detail. Designing and conducting a community-based participatory research project emphasized the importance of cultivating long-term relationships.

Volunteering with numerous nonprofit organizations, interning full-time as a Programs Intern for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, serving as president on the board of directors of Health Equity Circle, and completing a Nonprofit Management course have prepared me to build a sustainable organization and have refined my interpersonal communication skills.

Graduating from MSU in four years with two degrees, two minors, honors, and a 3.96 GPA, refined my time management, prioritization, and work-life balance skills. I also completed the two-year Area Health Education Center Certificate program that prepares healthcare providers for rural work through an inter-professional approach.

As a Truman scholar, I am committed to public service and have access to a powerful network of fellow change agents. I am deeply rooted in rural areas and in Montana, which has helped me to build partnerships that make Positivity Outward a product of collaboration. With unique experiences, passion, and skills, I bring confidence to the table that we will improve the lives of the youth we serve.

Although I have had the idea for Positivity Outward since August 2017, real progress on the nonprofit was not made until the 2019-2020 academic year. The time in-between those dates was instead spent on trying to healthily manage my mental illness from adverse childhood experiences and two abusive relationships. I experienced a downward spiral of self-harm, suicide ideation, medication side effects, and daily migraines before finding what self-care and balance looked like for me. 

I found it in numerous self-help and personal development books that motivated me to develop healthy coping mechanisms. I am now 9 months clean from self-harm and I have migraines only once a month! My personal journey of feeling like I was drowning to finding hope inspired me to share the resources that helped me with others who may struggle and have limited access to care, like Kristy. 

Wherever I go, I carry my scars on my surface and in my heart, along with the belief in the power our youth have to turn their adversity into strength. I also carry deep empathy so I can connect with our youth and show that they can use their strength and creativity to make a more beautiful world.

In 2018, I designed and conducted a research project to investigate the compassion fatigue and burnout of Ugandan healthcare workers. During a six-week internship in Uganda, I volunteered in three public hospitals: recording patient history, scrubbing the theatre with limited antiseptics after five emergency cesarean sections, and collecting data for the research. I presented the results at two conferences and was accepted to orally present at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research before it was cancelled. I am currently writing a manuscript to be submitted later this year.

This past year, I was able to partner with Wyoming FCCLA to address resource deficits in Uganda. Wyoming students designed fundraisers to collect toys, books, and blankets for the children and fundraise for hospital supplies, with two incredible rural chapters raising $500 and collecting 600 items. 
I am so grateful to give back to the people who taught me so much about love, gratitude, and courage when I return to Uganda for two weeks in September. I will deliver the items and funds, and to complete a story-telling project documenting the effect of the pandemic in the village.

Following the types of innovation from the Harvard Business Review, Positivity Outward is architecturally innovative by disrupting technology and business models. The technological disruption of an app that includes a self help library and service opportunities is unprecedented, especially in rural areas. The ideas themselves are novel, including creating self-help libraries as a mental health intervention and matching service with funds to further impact. We are creating an innovative and multi-faceted youth intervention based in technology!

The business model disruption occurs as we uniquely intersect research with the nonprofit sector in a design-centered hub of partnership and collaboration. Although 91% of nonprofits engage in collaboration, a partnership-centered model elevates the work of other nonprofits that are part of our network and brings us closer to social change. We also bringing value to for-profit entities and public schools (see financial sustainability), creating a program that can truly elevate all rural youth. 

By having researchers as stakeholders and research as a primary focus, we also elevate understanding of human behavior in a way that can also disrupt education, technology, and policy. The innovation of Positivity Outward will continue to evolve as we engage with rural youth and apply their insight as we design the organization.  

Positivity Outward’s theory of change has strategies of mental health and service. The outcome categories follow the 2004 Theory of Change tool by ORS. These strategies and outcomes are supported by articles referenced below and by more than 15 individuals who have extensive experience in these fields. As research further supports these strategies and outcomes, the data will be published in peer-reviewed journals available to the public to create even more positive outcomes. 

o Mental health 
 Activities: Rural youth receive individualized resources for self-care and personal development and mentors for support. 
 Outputs: Measures of self-efficacy and resilience improve, as shown by Tsang, et al, 2012. Incidence of negative behaviors such as suicide decrease, as shown by Keller and Wilkinson, 2017. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress decrease as shown by Morgan, et al, 2016 and Straten, et al, 2008. 
 Outcomes: 
• Impact: Youth have increased belief in their abilities. Youth are more willing to seek professional resources and engage in conversations about mental health. 
• Influence: Negative stigma surrounding mental health decreases. Community perception around self-care becomes more positive. Students feel supported and heard. 
• Leverage: Investments into youth self-help interventions increase. School curriculum shifts to integrate self-care and development of healthy coping strategies into requirements. 
o Service 
 Activities: Rural youth are provided an app containing individualized opportunities for community service. Youth receive funds, mentorship, and support to design and implement community improvement projects. Local nonprofits receive volunteers and funds. 
 Outputs: Measures of outcomes including confidence, competence, connection, character, and compassion improve, as shown by US Department of Education Youth Development Model. Measures of self-efficacy improve. 
 Outcomes: 
• Impact: Students feel confident in their abilities to create change and see opportunities to contribute to society. Students develop creative problem-solving skills. Community and social capacity increases. 
• Influence: Community perception of youth potential improves. Schools require community service but include service such as kindness in requirements. 
• Leverage: Student recruitment and acceptance to higher education institutions increases. Students receive other funding sources for projects. Rural communities receive more investments because of high-functioning youth. 

Positivity Outward is still being developed but will launch August 2021. During its first year, we have the budget for15 rural Montana schools of up to 150 students, totaling about 1500 students. 

Within the next five years, we will have the budget and infrastructure to support more than 100 rural schools in Montana, Wyoming, and beyond reaching close to 15000 students. 

These projections are without the Elevate Prize. With the Elevate prize, these numbers would drastically increase to be nation-wide within 2-3 years and the program to be launched as soon as January. 

The goals of Positivity Outward are to create the outputs and outcomes outlined in the theory of change. 

We will achieve these goals and the new goals we set with thorough planning and rigorous evaluation, with input between all stakeholders. All goals set by Positivity Outward should reflect adaptability, inclusion, and strong relationships with the communities we serve.

Without the Elevate Prize: 

Within the next year, we will have designed a program with have input from participants, researchers, and partners. We have a goal of at least 30 partners across Montana by the time we launch a year from now. 

Within five years, we hope to see increases in self-efficacy and resilience of students who complete 30-day self-care goals after engaging with the multimedia libraries. We hope to see improvement in four of the five development outcomes of competence, confidence, character, connection, and compassion in at least 80% of students who participate. With that, we will look for evidence of permanent behavior change both in the mental health and service strategies. We will grow over 250 partners across at least three states. 

With the Elevate Prize: 

Within the next year, we will have strong relationships with 30 partners across Montana and have launched the program in 15 schools. We will have data for self-efficacy and resilience of students who complete our programs. 

Within five years, we will have strong relationships with 500 partners across the nation and be operating in rural and even larger high schools across the nation! 

Next year: 

Positivity Outward is faced with market, technical, cultural, and geographical barriers. This next year will be spent developing and planning the nonprofit, which requires cultivating relationships with our market, rural communities. However, as education is disrupted with the pandemic, the landscape of how students will attend school is uncertain and school administration is occupied with navigating the complexity. These barriers create a sense of urgency as students' needs are rising. 

The technical barrier we have is developing an app and website since no one currently on the team has coding experience. This creates a timeline barrier as we have to work with the schedule of the students who will develop the app for us as part of their senior project.

The cultural barrier we have is the negative stigma toward mental health in small towns and the hesitance tight-knit towns have to accept help.  The geographical barriers we face are the distance between rural towns, as Montana is a large state, which creates difficulty in face-to-face interaction. 

Five years: 

Positivity Outward will be faced with scalability and geographical barriers. The scalability barriers are the challenges of having infrastructure and finances to support scaling, as I plan to attend graduate school starting as soon as August 2021 and thus must take a more backseat role. As we scale across a bigger region, we will be faced with more geographical barriers. 

The market barrier will be overcome with strategic planning and collaboration. One resource we have is the support of Montana State University (MSU) Extension. They have a need for a virtual mental health project, which we fit, thus taking advantage of already cultivated community relationships and infrastructure. 

The technical barriers will be overcome by utilizing the services of the MSU Software Factory, who has agreed to develop the app and website for us over the course of the next academic year. After that we would need to out-source; however, the Elevate Prize could help us recruit talent that can continue developing the app as needs evolve. 

We will overcome the cultural barriers by building long-term relationships with the communities and being transparent about our program. 
We will overcome the geographical barriers by utilizing technology and empowering the rural youth. Video calls have already been successfully used to establish relationships. Instead of us trying to build momentum in each town, youth take the initiative instead and we offer a supporting role. 

The scalability barrier can be overcome with strategic planning between all stakeholders and acknowledging the opportunity that me taking a backseat role puts power in the hands of the beneficiaries. The Elevate Prize can help with this by providing mentorship and coaching for sustainability. I plan for Positivity Outward to be the focus of my Ph.D., which will help me be equipped to further expand the project. 

With adaptability, communication, and planning we will overcome! 

• Montana Office of Public Instruction (government entity): integrating Positivity Outward into school curricula
• One Montana (nonprofit): building community relationships, support for youth social entrepreneurship programs 
• Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (MSU organization): building community relationships, conducting research 
• Idea Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (National Institutes of Health program at MSU): conducting ethical research 
• Extension (MSU organization): building community relationships, offering professional resources for youth mental health
• Outreach and Engagement Council (MSU organization): recruiting mentors for project 
• Health Equity Circle (MSU student organization): recruiting mentors, fundraising, support for starting a nonprofit 
• Blackstone Launchpad (MSU organization): business consulting services
• Youth Aware of Mental Health (state-wide initiative): collaboration for rural youth mental health 
• Montana 4-H (state-wide organization): have a phone call next week to discuss potential partnership 
• Software Factory (MSU organization): app development 

We are providing both mental health services and youth development services to rural youth delivered with technology. Through an app or website, students are given access to the mental health library associated with their school. They also have access to a variety of community service opportunities ranging from 15 minutes-or-less acts of kindness to month-long projects. Students who complete service also have access to funds, resources, and support in designing their own community improvement project. Students will also have the option to donate their funds to a local nonprofit of their choice. 

Schools want their students to be healthy, high-functioning members of society. However, many intervention programs lack individualized treatment and a one-size-fits-all approach leaves several students exposed to individual, relationship, community, or societal risk factors which can affect them over a lifetime. We bring value in an individualized approach that can reduce negative behaviors and promote transformation of risk factors into protective factors, a strategy supported by the Surgeon General. Healthy and high-functioning youth grow into healthier and more high-functioning adults, which saves large amounts of time and money in secondary costs. The ripples of impact from student service also has extreme value to communities. 

Our path to financial sustainability is to shift from grants and donations that will fund the year of development to an earned revenue model once the program is launched August 2021. The earned revenue model will consist of corporate sponsorships, contracts with schools, and fees from nonprofits. 

The corporations we will seek sponsorships from benefit from expanding into rural areas and currently lack a rural presence. These include Amazon, as we provide books through Kindle and Audible; Volunteer Match, whose technology gives users location-specific volunteer opportunities; Youth Entrepreneurs, who provides entrepreneurship curriculum; and the Acts of Kindness Foundation. Existing youth organizations such as 4-H, FCCLA, and National Honor Society may also sponsor to promote student engagement in existing chapters. 

We will also have paid contracts with schools that have a student body of larger than 200 students. While both programs of Positivity Outward will be free for schools with less than 250 students, the costs will be offset by larger schools paying for access.  

There will be a tiered system for nonprofits paying fees to have their volunteer opportunities listed on the service app, so small nonprofits with restricted budgets will still have access to students who can support their work. Within five years, our revenue streams will cover the expected expenses.  

• Samuel Huntington Public Service Award, grant, $15,000 May 2020
• Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Scholars grant $1500, June 2020
• Health Equity Circle donations $2700, April 2020  

• We will be seeking an additional $10,000 in local grants or donations to meet expenses for the next year (August 2020 to August 2021) (below). Since we already have $19,200 in funding, the $10,000 will be used to meet the programs costs by August 2021. 
• However, we are also seeking the Elevate Prize of a minimum of $300,000 to speed up our timeline and scaling. 

• Positivity Outward organization costs: 
  • Legal fees (tax exemption filing, registration, reporting): $925 
  • Capital expenses (laptop computer): $1500 
  • Grant opportunities (subscriptions to GrantStation, Foundation Directory Online): $279 
  • Brand development (logo, application, website): $8,890
• Mental health program:
  • Books cost (average of $13.65/book * 30 books/school * 15 schools): $6,142.50 
  • Awards for recognition $1000 
• Service program:
  • Service-match donations $10,000

If we received the Elevate Prize, these numbers would change because of how many more schools we would be able to implement the program in and that we would have a much larger budget for brand development (i.e. hiring professionals for the app and website development) and expansion. The budget per school would increase and the number of schools would increase. 

I answer how the Elevate Prize can help overcome barriers in the “More About Your Work” question and in the next question. 

I have planned Positivity Outward to work on a small budget, which meant that app development would take a year, I would design the website myself, and that I have already volunteered hundreds of hours. I am taking a gap year from school to work full-time on developing Positivity Outward. 

I am applying for the Elevate Prize so that I no longer have to lengthen the timeline for the sake of budgeting. With the Prize, programming could begin as soon as January. The app and website could be professionally developed up to six months sooner, the partnerships could be developed sooner as we would have more leverage, and we could reach all rural high schools in Montana this year.

This urgency is necessary as rural students are more at risk of suicide and mental illness because of the pandemic-induced social isolation. Rural communities, who are also struggling, need their youth to be strong and to share their ideas on building stronger communities even through this crisis. 

I am applying for this prize because I believe Positivity Outward truly can elevate humanity by elevating rural youth, and the Elevate Prize can make that vision a reality, now. I believe in it, all of the partners I have been working with believe in it, and Kristy believes in it. We hope you will too. 

As I describe in the overcoming barriers question, I need the most support in mentorship and coaching for scalability and talent recruitment, including recruiting board members. Positivity Outward’s vision is to be a nation-wide program, even global program, that elevates rural communities through youth empowerment. To do so successfully, I need an experienced and talented team to help build infrastructure that supports such a market. Thus, talent recruitment includes tech savvy individuals to develop and manage the app and website. Positivity Outward needs a Board of Directors that can strategically guide the organization to this vision. As I’ve learned through the internship I am completing for a D.C. nonprofit, many nonprofits struggle because their boards are disengaged or lack the needed skills. The Elevate Prize would be a platform to recruit talent that could help Positivity Outward reach youth across the globe and elevate their lives.

Organization partners are critical to the success of Positivity Outward. As I note in the existing partnerships section, we have already worked to develop several partnerships in a variety of ways. Other planned partnerships and why they are needed are listed below.

• The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation: provide ideas for acts of service that take 15 minutes or less 
• Stand for Courage: month-long service project idea against anti-bullying 
• Volunteer Match: technology for finding opportunities and nonprofit outreach
• National Alliance on Mental Illness: collaborate on youth mental health project 
• 4-H, FFA, FCCLA, National Honor Society SkillsUSA: existing student-led organizations that could collaborate on skill development 
• Amazon: provide Kindle and audiobooks for the mental health project 
• local nonprofits: provide opportunities for students to serve 
• Individual school administration: to understand what initiatives are there and plan the best way to promote and implement the program