Saphira Klearman, a sixteen-year-old senior at Battle Mountain High School and founder of Project We Care Colorado, a teen-driven state-wide organization focused on providing mental health education and advocating for youth, brought Bright Future Foundation a concept on consent education and promotion she wanted to create and promote to the high schools and the community at large.
Bright Future Foundation serves all of Eagle County in domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, intervention, and on-going counseling. Bright Future Foundation offers a full complement of professional services that help to break the generational cycle of violence by providing immediate relief to families in need.
Saphira believed that her initiative to promote consent as the norm for healthy relationships would align well with Bright Future Foundation’s mission. Bright Future Foundation is proud to work with such a devoted advocate for youth and felt they could provide support and guidance for Saphira’s vision and help bring her U Mustache 4 Consent campaign to Eagle County through the schools and other community opportunities.
Saphira’s proposed campaign, U Mustache 4 Consent, is catchy, youthful, attractive, and engaging. Bright Future Foundation enthusiastically offered access to facts and information, and provided support for the educational component and the community engagement campaign.
Then, in an unexpected twist of good timing and good fortune, Bon Iver, a Grammy award-winning musical group, contacted Bright Future Foundation in July of 2019 to ask if the foundation would like to partner with their band with the goal of donating to, working with, and promoting the work of local violence prevention organizations over the course of their tour. Bon Iver, through online auctions, event auctions, and merchandise sales was raising funds that they would then reinvest in the communities that came out to support them and enjoy their music.
On September 2nd, Bon Iver played at the Ford Amphitheater in Vail. Bright Future Foundation invited Saphira to join them at the event and it was through the generosity of Bon Iver in granting a platform to the foundation that the U Mustache 4 Consent campaign was officially launched. The reactions of the community were staggering.
Bright Future Foundation had a table with information, sign up sheets for volunteers to work with local youth as Buddy Mentors and to sign up to help with the 24/7 crisis hotline, and had printed up U Mustache 4 Consent stickers and posters. Volunteers handed out fake mustaches and opened conversations with all sorts of people. Together, Bright Future Foundation and Saphira engaged youth, vendors, locals, visitors, people working with Bon Iver, security, and the police in discussing the importance of consent and how to work together to prevent violence and sexual assault.
There was a hugely positive response, the message resonated with the people, and Bright Future Foundation, Bon Iver, and Project We Care Colorado and Saphira Klearman collaborated to simultaneously promote consent education, involve youth through positive engagement, and work to expand community empowerment.
Ultimately, Saphira, with Bright Future Foundation and other community support, will bring the U Mustache 4 Consent campaign and educational program to her peers in the schools, to the community, and who knows, far beyond our Eagle County borders. Her vision and passion are palpable, they move people to action, and we are only seeing her at her beginning.
