The SuperBetter team is feeling grateful.
In this post, we share what’s making us thankful, the bold mission that serves as our North Star, a new alliance to grow our impact, and resources to help navigate life in 2020.
Passing the 1 million player mark is an epic milestone for the SuperBetter Community. Thank you for being part of it.
SuperBetter brings the mindset and psychology of game play to real life to overcome tough situations. It’s a support system for success. Published studies show that playing SuperBetter increases resilience, mental health and social-emotional skills.
While passing the 1 million player mark is a notable achievement, it’s the stories about how SuperBetter impacts lives that touch our hearts. We smile from ear-to-ear when we read social media posts, emails and reviews sharing how playing SuperBetter helped to overcome a difficult obstacle or achieve success in some area of life.
We appreciate all the allies around the world who believe in SuperBetter and recommend it to others. We do a happy dance every time we learn about another educator, therapist, K-12 school, college or university recommending our app.
And we are thankful for our allies in the media. Their stories create awareness to grow our community. This is especially helpful since the SuperBetter app is 100% free right now, and free means no budget for advertising.
Some of our favorite media stories featuring SuperBetter are found in Business Insider, Vox, Built in and PsyberGuide.
We’re grateful to regularly find SuperBetter on media lists of best apps for mental health — often with Calm, Headspace and Talkspace.
As a scrappy bootstrapped company, it’s awesome to find SuperBetter alongside these apps from companies with $1 billion+ valuations and backed by hundreds of millions dollars of venture capital.
A few lists of best mental health apps are found in Parade, Real Simple & Women’s Health.
Going for our next epic win
One thing is clear, the world needs more of SuperBetter right now.
This is especially true for youth, a group which has experienced alarming increases in depression and anxiety rates over the past 8 years, including +61% growth in the prevalence of depression among age 12-17 between 2011-2017.
The pandemic is further adding to the mental health burden. In a CDC survey from June, a shocking 25.5% of young adults age 18-24 reported suicidal ideation in the past 30 days.
It’s time for SuperBetter to level up.
We’ve created a bold new mission statement as our guiding North Star:
To unlock the heroic potential of 50 million youth by 2025
Growing our impact from 1 million to 50 million people in 5 years will require world-class allies. We’re working on plans to achieve this level of impact in a way that is both scalable and sustainable.
Unlocking Heroic Potential in Developing Countries
While the SuperBetter team implements a plan to grow our impact in the developed world, a new alliance with Children for Health is bringing our proven resilience-building methodology to youth in developing countries.
Children for Health is a respected UK-based non-profit that creates and distributes resources for educators and students in low resource settings in developing countries. Their approach promotes child and adolescent health & wellbeing while empowering youth to be agents of change for their families & communities.
Children for Health has already incorporated SuperBetter activities in a new storybook called Unlocked.
The Unlocked story and activities help children learn how to increase their resilience and feelings of wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The storybook can be dowloaded here.
You are welcome to share the link for the free storybook with educators, parents & anyone else impacting children who might benefit — regardless of where they live in the world.
The vision for the SuperBetter Children for Health alliance can be found here.
Children for Health’s current project is a new resilience and wellbeing curriculum, SuperBetter Children in Africa. Designed for children age 10-14, the program is being developed alongside educators in low resource settings in Africa. It will be initially introduced in rural Zambia and Tanzania.
A similar project developed with input from educators in India will adapt the curriculum for a project called SuperBetter Children in India.
If you’re interested in learning more or supporting this work, reach out to the Children for Health team here.
Take Care of Yourself in 2020
2020 has been a challenging year for nearly everyone. Please prioritize your own self-care.
If you’re struggling, know that you are not alone. In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, more than half of US adults (53%) reported that their mental health is negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the pandemic.
As a member of the SuperBetter Community, you are invited to attend REFUEL, a free virtual wellbeing event to restore and inspire you for the year ahead. The Dec. 16 event includes 5 amazing speakers including Tony Hawk and SuperBetter inventor Jane McGonigal. Learn more and register here.
We’re happy to be in a position to make the SuperBetter app available as a 100% free resource right now.
The app has a library of Power Packs. Some especially helpful in 2020 are Stay Strong in a Pandemic, The Stay-At-Home Scavenger Hunt, Being Awesome, and Better Than a Chill Pill.
Note that a tradeoff of keeping the apps free is the lack of resources to make regular updates, and the apps can be buggy. If you have trouble on your device, try the website. Be sure to explore the Secret Lab and bonus Ally features available on the website version!
As physical distancing limits in-person social connections, more people are finding support in virtual communities like our SuperBetter Community Group on Facebook. With over 4,000 members, it’s an amazing place to find allies and encouragement. You can join the community here.
Wishing you health and happiness. Stay safe.
Your allies at SuperBetter