Welcome!

If you're interested in starting a Campus Icarus group at your school, please explore this site for inspiration, and send us an email with any questions To receive - click on the "Contact" tab at the top of the page or email campus(at)theicarusproject(dot)net.

A good place to start is on The Icarus Project Website (specifically the Campus section: https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/campus) where you can download the "Student Organizers' Guide To Creating a Campus Icarus Group" starter materials to guide you in launching a Campus Icarus group on your campus.

When your group is launched, email campus(at)theicarusproject(dot)net with your name, contact information, and school so you can be added to the Campus Contacts list.

Already involved in a Campus Icarus group? Please create/contribute to the Wiki page to keep everyone updated on what's happening at your school (click on the "Wiki" tab at the top of the page).

Here's a loose statement about what CI is- it can but doesn't have to apply to all CI groups. If you have feedback about the mission of CI groups, please share!

Campus Icarus is a student-led initiative of The Icarus Project, a radical mental health collective. As student organizers, we recognize society’s problematic relationship with mental health and are working to open the dialogue around these issues at colleges and universities. We find matters of emotional distress and extreme states of consciousness often silenced on our campuses, which perpetuates a culture of shame that only exacerbates students' struggles. Campus Icarus challenges the prevailing concept of "mental illness”, questions the ever-expanding use of diagnostic labels, and works to both educate and empower student consumers of mental health services. As a learning community, peer support system, and activist network, we work to develop creative approaches to psychic diversity and mental suffering. We expand upon the existing mental health services offered to college students by creating peer-run safe spaces where students explore alternative interpretations of their experiences, receive and offer mutual support, and challenge the existing status quo. 

Campus Icarus works to break down the barriers between what is commonly considered "normal” and “disordered”. In our culture, it is easy to view ourselves as broken and in need of fixing – a powerful metaphor that can begin to shape one’s reality. Instead of subscribing to societal standards, we recognize the multiplicity of mental health experience and strive to maintain a community that regards psychic diversity as something to be respected and even celebrated. Our community encourages personal engagement in a process of self-determination and self-definition. Together we foster a forum for change, creating a space where anyone, with personal, academic, or professional intentions, can come to challenge and reform the social binary of psychic "sameness” and “difference”. Whether you subscribe to diagnostic labels or not, take medication or not, you can become a part of the movement working to create an open and accepting environment essential to everyone’s wellbeing.