Bring eating disorder awareness to your school or college campus.

Start a chapter or collaborate your MSA with us.

What does it mean to start a chapter?

College and high school clubs are a great way to spread awareness about a cause you care about. Starting a chapter means creating a Lone Bench club at your high school or college campus for eating disorder support and awareness amongst Muslims.

We provide programming materials for club meetings (typically once a month) and require your chapter to help host at least one fundraiser a year for us.

Before you apply to be a chapter leader, you will need to find a club sponsor who is a faculty member at your school/university and decide on at least two individuals who will have leadership positions in the club. You can have up to five student leadership positions.

What if I have an MSA (Muslim Student Association) on campus?

You can of course still start a Lone Bench chapter if you would like, but since there is already an organization that has gathered most of the Muslims at your school, it would be more feasible to collaborate your MSA with us to bring eating disorder and mental health awareness to the Muslim community at your school. If you are a member of your school’s MSA, coordinate with their leadership and fill out the form below to explore opportunities for collaboration.

FAQs

  • Chapters host meetings in which they use programming materials from us as well as self created materials to help educate the Muslim population about eating disorders and body image, as well as provide support for those struggling. Programming examples include body image workshops, interactive presentations on disordered eating, and mental health support group days.

  • MSAs usually do various activities at meetings. It’s important that MSA’s also provide mental health support for Muslims on their campus. About 15% of Muslim youth on college and high school campuses report knowing a fellow Muslim struggling with an eating disorder. We give MSAs the resources to host workshops and presentations for their Muslim community. Additionally, MSAs can host fundraisers to fundraise for our cause. Collaboration with LBI can be a long term or a short term collaboration.

  • Most of our chapters host about one meeting a month that is about an hour long. The planning leading up to this meeting may take about 1-2 hours a week. During a fundraising period, time commitment may be more, about 2-3 hours a week.

  • Email maryamfaisal@lonebenchinitiative.org if you have any questions about chapters or MSA collaboration.