Out of Your Mind and Into The Community
It’s a cool, autumn Sunday evening and Espresso News Coffee Shop is full. As the participants of Out of Your Mind’s creative writing workshop gather, Kat Dolan greets everyone with a big smile and hug.
Among the group may be musicians, artists, poets and more. All of them sharing a common link. Mental Opportunities.
According to the organization’s website, “Out of Your Mind combats social isolation through creative peer support and reframes mental illness as a mental opportunity.”
Dolan, 26, is the founder of the grassroots non-profit organization and has plans to take the program nationwide. A poet and inspirational speaker, Dolan utilizes her experiences with depression and anxiety and channels it into efforts to make sure that others with mental opportunities do not feel alone.
“Especially in high school, I never felt like there was a place for people like me,” Dolan says. “I promised myself when I was a teenager that I would do something about it, and so Out of Your Mind is that promise I made to myself.”
Dolan says she started performance poetry at James Madison University at 19 years old. Dolan was the co-president of the Word is Born Writers’ Society her Junior and Senior year.
“We were performing every single week,” Dolan says. “I was leading writing workshops every single week because I was the president of the club. So, it just became the only thing that I looked forward to, really.”
Dolan says she incorporates performance poetry in her inspirational speaking, sharing her experience with mental health, with audiences. Dolan says that there are many artists that she admires that suffer from mental opportunities and do not understand their mental opportunity. Dolan says that as a result, the artists end up as alcoholics and drug addicts and eventually commit suicide.
Recently, Dolan performed at a private boarding school in Baltimore, MD.
“I think it’s really important for young people, young artists, to know that there’s someone out there who has been through that, who refuses to end the story that way,” Dolan says.
Dolan’s passion for facilitating community led her to start Out of Your Mind. Dolan hung posters around the town of Boone, NC, and invited anyone who identifies with mental opportunities, from Schizophrenia to PTSD, to a potluck.
“It was great,” Dolan says. “We had 42 people show up to the first event, which was massive.”
From there, Out of Your Mind continued to host weekly potlucks for the rest of the month, with a consistent group of 15. That was in August 2017.
Dolan says that some people who attended the first potluck, still attend.
Matt Robinson is one of those members who has been there from the beginning. Robinson, who writes fiction, says the group has been life changing.
“I hope it continues to grow and expand beyond Boone,” says Robinson.
Out of Your Mind usually meets twice a month, according to Dolan. One is a potluck with a small business collaboration and the other is a group hike, that Dolan says is a maximum of five miles.
Looking at the website, the group has tried a variety of experiences. From origami workshops to this weekend’s hiking adventure, where members will participate in a yoga class in the woods.
“We do everything,” says Dolan. Still in the window of their 18-month pilot program, Dolan says they are trying different things and keeping track of how many people attend.
“I really try to branch out to make it repeatable,” Dolan says. “It’s meant so that anyone could do this.”
Dolan says the organization’s overall goal is to start an annual weekend conference which will train others, including college students, so they can take that information and start Out of Your Mind in their schools and community.
Gabrielle Roshelli says she really enjoys what Dolan is doing.
“It’s a way for me to express myself in a healthy way, and to feel comfortable,” says Roshelli.
Dolan says she is not trying to fix anybody. The members of the group do not discuss what they deal with.
“I just provide a space for people to be,” says Dolan. “It’s just a cool place for people with mental opportunity to feel not alone.”
Source List for Out of Your Mind and Into the Community
All Sources were interviewed on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2017, at Espresso News Coffee Shop.
1. Kat Dolan- Main Source of Story.
2. Matt Robinson- Attendee and has been there since the first potluck.
3. Gabrielle Roshelli- Attendee
Secondary Sources:
*I referenced the Out of Your Mind Website, as well as Kat Dolan’s website page and YouTube page.
1. https://katdolan.com/meetkat
2. https://outofyourmind.us/
Social Media Links
Meet Caitlin
Caitlin is a storyteller and photographer currently based in the coastal city of Wilmington, N.C.
A self-confessed romantic, she is a firm believer that there is good in the world.
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