Mental health has become an increasingly discussed topic in recent years with various groups working to raise awareness.
However, The Scatter Joy Project, a nonprofit founded in 2021 by Westerville resident Zach Thompson, takes discussions about mental health a step further.
Dubbed as “the creative mental health company,” Scatter Joy seeks to build community, spark conversations and make obtaining mental health care more approachable, affordable and accessible through its events and free resources.
A time of need
Cheyn Roux
During the COVID-19 pandemic, having just welcomed his first child with his wife, Molly, Thompson was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson when the inspiration for Scatter Joy jumped off the page:
“There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us,” Emerson wrote in The Conduct of Life (1860).
Having experienced his own mental health battles and recognizing the struggles other people were facing, he felt compelled to create something that went beyond raising awareness.
“Awareness is at an all-time high, but so are statistics,” Thompson says. “So, we wanted to create something that not only created awareness but actually pulled people from awareness to action.”
Scatter Joy’s initial launch was centered on an apparel line, and its first collection sold out within two days. Apparel and donations are Scatter Joy’s main sources of funding for resources such as the Crisis Text Line, the Find Help Network and the Therapy Fund, which covers three to six therapy sessions if affordability is a barrier.
Apparel also contributes to spreading brand awareness, with some people learning about the company by seeing others wear Scatter Joy T-shirts or hoodies.
“It creates this opportunity for activism and storytelling and sharing about personal mental health journeys, struggles and successes,” Thompson says.
Connection through art
Another way in which Scatter Joy reaches people is through events, such as Studio Stories, during which artists perform and then sit down to share their journey with mental health.
After starting to host events in 2022, filming them and posting on social media, Thompson says Scatter Joy’s following has increased, attracting people who are both interested in its work and need its resources.
Thompson believes there’s a natural intersection between art and mental health, and Studio Stories provide the opportunity for meaningful conversations and connections between artists and audience members.
“Artists tell stories from a place of joy, or hope, or sorrow and struggle, and then they just communicate the human experience in between those two,” Thompson says. “Because we can see ourselves within someone else’s story, it’s an incubator for empathy as well.”
Community initiatives
Cheyn Roux
Scatter Joy additionally encourages conversation and fosters community by engaging in various initiatives.
“When we think about mental health, we think about community care as part of that solution,” Thompson says. “And so how do we feel like we can empower and engage the community to care for and feel confident in showing up in other people’s lives, especially in the really fast-paced, busy culture that we live in?”
Initiatives include random acts of joy during Mental Health Awareness Month in May, where people are encouraged to make a list of acts of joy and then go do them for others. Scatter Joy has also done a community service scavenger hunt, where people search for ways to be of help.
During Suicide Prevention Month in September, Scatter Joy passes out roses to raise awareness and remind people of their worth.
In terms of public reception, Thompson says Scatter Joy has only been met with gratitude and admiration.
“I think that speaks to the urgency of it being needed, of the uniqueness of our project and how we show up in certain spaces,” he says. “I think it just further lights a fire beneath us to go do really good and impactful work.”
Thompson says he’s seen more people in his own community become open to sharing their stories. Further, he says the support Westerville gives to people who need it influences his own work.
“(Scatter Joy) is inspired by what exists here in Westerville, and that is a heart for compassion and empathy,” Thompson says. “That heart drives us every single day, every single decision that we have to make.”
Cheyn Roux
A personal journey
Thompson says Scatter Joy is an ever-evolving experiment, something he has reconciled with as a recovering perfectionist.
Seeing Scatter Joy as an experiment rather than a finality is a mentality he applies to his personal life.
“I don’t need to be perfect. I’m an experiment. I’m continuing to grow,” Thompson says. “That saved me a lot in the sense of pressure and shame and guilt for it not being the thing that I wanted it to be.”
Thompson was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in seventh grade and struggled silently for years. He says it took a health scare in college to finally get himself the help he needed and wishes he had grown up with something like Scatter Joy.
“I wish I had a community that really painted the picture that it was okay to feel how I was feeling, that I didn’t need to wrap myself in shame to feel motivated to move and exist and pretend to be fine every single day,” Thompson says.
Central to Scatter Joy’s tagline, “There is strength in your story,” he wants people to feel empowered by their experiences.
“Whatever you feel shame in and whatever you’ve gone through that’s really hard in your life actually uniquely qualifies you to help someone go through something similar in their life,” Thompson says.
Community members can consistently support Scatter Joy through its membership program, The Society, which launched this past year. The program helps fund mental health resources such as the Therapy Fund and also includes personal perks such as a newsletter and free T-shirt. Learn more at www.thescatterjoyproject.com.
Amanda Stevens is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
