November 2024 Community Update!

Dear Community,

November is here already! The fall flies by for me. My big kids (now in college as sophomores) are coming home for Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to see them and hang out. I’m also looking forward to Cupsgiving with all of you! @ASilentObserver has been sharing a little bit of the plans here and there with us. 

I have one update that I haven’t shared much about yet. It has been on my to do list for weeks and I need to write an article, but here is a brief summary:   Noni is now performing at a fair level on the Session Rating Scale. This is actually a remarkable accomplishment.

And, here is the bigger and better insight, which most all of you predicted. Even though we now have a bot that is doing great, people still VASTLY prefer talking with a human. And it isn’t even close. The idea of mattering to another person is likely a hugely therapeutic ingredient. We’ve known this, but this spells it out even more. @healingtalk shared the insight that AI is like decaf and a human is like caffeinated coffee. I thought that was a good way of capturing it.

I still believe that AI is important and plays a role both in Noni form and also in Just-In-Time-Training, but as we’ve said many times. Listeners - human to human connection - is primary.

The next big announcement I’ll share soon is a way of surfacing local resources (like shelters, food pantries etc.) to help people on the ground. We’ve been working on this for 3-4 months now and I hope to share it with you all in the coming week.

Last, a big thanks to all of you for celebrating with us! If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our award video here and as my kids would say “smash that like button!”

With gratitude,
Glen

H

World Mental Health Awareness Month may be over, but self-care is forever. After reading this update, head on over to this post to pass the checkpoint. If you can make it a daily habit, let me know and I will shout out to you!

The Member Welcome Committee continues to scale efforts to connect with newcomers around the clock. In our 4 months of activity, we’ve PMed over 15000 newbies! We need more help in different timezones so if you’re a Verified Listener who wants to make a big impact in our community, I would love to have you on our team. Find out how to apply (here) and drop me a PM if you have questions!

And lastly, if you’re someone who struggles with comparing themselves to others, I’ve written a post just for you: Breaking the Comparison Cycle.

Hope

We opened all 4 of our forum workshop series. You can now participate in all posts of a workshop series and become eligible for a certificate. The series cover the topics of Anxiety, Cognitive distortions, building self esteem and setting and achieving the right goals. View more information here. The deadline for earning the certificate(s) is November 30, 2024. However you will likely need to start much in advance to finish on time. 

October was full of progress in Academy. We reviewed applications and streamlined the process by removing some questions, making it easier than ever to join. More info on the programs offered can be found here. Moreover, the much awaited Academy Summit and Ripple effect badges became available and were assigned to all who completed academy programs and courses. You can view more information here. Also, 7 Cups Academy participated in World Mental Health day events with a series of themed polls. You can view them here. Lastly, we rolled out Monthly Review Highlights and Certificate for academy mentors where each month all positive reviews will be showcased and mentors will be awarded a certificate for reaching 10. You can view the very first post here. 

Last but not least! We rolled out a fresh new challenged for our teens and adult-teen listeners. 4 weeks of side quests aimed to help us all be kind to ourselves and others. Join it here. 

Obs

October was World Mental Health Awareness Month and Group Support hosted several sessions. Heather & I were reflecting the other day on how group support organized events every month this year and after a long time, we are close to organizing events throughout the year. It is a nice small progress and win for Group Support and the credits for making it possible go to every person who participated and empowered each other in the group support. I look forward to having more awesome events in the upcoming months and years in collaboration with the community. T h a n k  Y o u!! 

In the other news, we relaunched the Project Group Support Buddy. It is the third version of the program and so far the simplified version. Thank you to all leaders and buddies for coming together to make this version possible. The goal of the project is to help all group support leaders feel more closely connected to the group support team and equipped in their roles to support the community and each other. 

SoulfullyAButterfly

This month, we launched our closed group based Wellness Accountability Huddle. This 5 week group opportunity helped us build closer connections and users have been supporting one another in their wellness goals pursuits. We plan to extend the Huddle beyond the planned 5 weeks and will soon announce ways to join in the supportive environment achieved.

We also launched a call for testers for AI bots, namely Noni and an external app called Wysa. This test will be launched soon in the coming weeks and we will share results with the community.

Lastly, our World Mental Health Day contributions involved our ambassadors and admins sharing tips on how to prioritize workplace wellbeing - in case you missed it, you can read these great actionable insights here.

Evelyne

A lot of progress for each team!

AL: We’ve addedd a new co-ambassador to the AL grading team. Please welcome @positivepumpkin22! She has been an integral part of the team as a ML, so this is a well deserved promotion. 

AE: This month we are welcoming two people to the team: @Winfleur and @HopieRemi. “@Lou73 is now a PA! We have completed over 100 evaluations this month and are looking into options for consistent fails. 

CT: The Care Team is doing great and continuing to support our fellow Listeners! We are always looking to add more members to our team, so if you are looking for a new role in the community and you love supporting your fellow Listeners, don’t hesitate to apply! You can reach out to @LittleBirdie30 or @SnowTabby with any questions!

On LCT, @Hopieremi has joined as the newest PA and had a great AMA. They also have a new teen coach! 

ST: 4 new SP members and counting! We've been focusing a lot on team outreach and recruiting. This month so far we've completed 22 profile violation outreaches and 3 discussions. 

CheeryMango

As we enter into the holiday season, we’re excited to announce our annual events, Cupsgiving and Cupsmas! These gatherings are a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate together, share our gratitude, and spread some holiday cheer.

Upcoming Events:

• Cupsgiving: November 15th-30th

• Cupsmas: December 1st-25th

Community Launch: In the coming weeks, we will be launching the Men's Issues community. This initiative aims to create a supportive space for discussing topics relevant to men’s experiences and challenges. We encourage everyone to participate and share their insights.

A friendly reminder for all forum supporters, community mentors and community mentor leaders are asked to fill out the Subcommunity Leadership Check-In Form for the month of October so we can keep updated on what’s going on in your team and roles and see how we can offer our assistance. 

Lastly, if you notice or experience any difficulties while using the forums, please help us to track and report any bugs in this thread. A gentle reminder when reporting bugs or issues, please give as much detail like time and location as to where it was experienced and include screenshots or any error codes so we can properly investigate it. Thank you for your continued support and here’s to what the new month brings.