Cardano for Self-Care

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Create a dApp that encourages regular self-care activities with incentives, social feedback and monitoring to maintain a good baseline of wellbeing.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

We have launched an NFT project (Mushroom Mob) which focuses on improving mental health.

Registered Clinicians:

skilled with psychotherapy, behaviour change and lifestyle interventions

Haskell Software Developer:

skilled with web development, wallet integration, smart contracts

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Good health comes from consistent health-promoting behaviours, e.g. regular exercise, a healthy diet, adequate sleep, participating in hobbies, etc. However, trying to thrive in an economy that demands our constant attention can result in ignoring these important, healthful habits. 

Often, people want to improve their health but don’t know where to start. 

We propose a dApp that encourages the Cardano community to engage in simple self-care activities. 

Opening the dApp: The user will be asked to rate their current mood, energy level and the amount of effort they want to dedicate to the task. Based on these results, a recommended activity and a brief description of its benefits will appear. 

Recommended activities: These will focus on a holistic health model, Te Whare Tapa Whā (four pillars of wellbeing), which includes mental/emotional health, physical health, spiritual health and social health. 

Examples:

• Mental/emotional: Journalling prompts to foster gratitude, watch a funny video, clean the work area
• Physical: stretching, flossing, eating vegetables, exercise
• Spiritual: connect with nature, meditate, set aside time for thought and reflection
• Social: spend time with loved ones, play an online game, call a friend, write a message to someone

There will be a choice to select another activity randomly or to manually choose one. 

Completing the activity: Once completed, the dApp will prompt the user to complete a brief check-in to reflect on the activity. The dApp will also invite users to share their task completion with the dApp’s Discord community for social encouragement and feedback.

Points will be awarded for completing the task and reflection, with extra points awarded for sharing the task on social media platforms. Points can be converted into rewards, such as Mushroom Mob NFTs and prizes from any future partnerships.

Monthly Wellbeing Challenges: Mushroom Mob already hosts monthly wellbeing challenges in our Discord server. These challenges can be run in the dApp; the Discord server will continue being used for ongoing social encouragement.

To our knowledge, Cardano does not currently have a dApp focusing on self-care. We chose self-care as it is a recognised area for mental health promotion and veers away from more complex clinical models of improving mental wellbeing. Internet self-help interventions can have a positive effect on reducing the risk of suicide (SDG KPI) and improving overall health.

We anticipate that regular engagement with the dApp will boost the Cardano community’s participation in self-care activities and overall wellbeing. 

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Cardano needs a thriving ecosystem of different Dapps, products and integrations for the community to use. We believe that for the community to thrive, we must invest in our health and ensure that there are Dapps available to encourage investment in our health whilst bringing our visions to life.

The Cardano ecosystem has the right tools, libraries and SDKs to make the idea feasible.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Building the dApp whilst managing an existing workload

The team are the founders of Mushroom Mob, an NFT project focused on promoting health and wellness. We will manage our multiple responsibilities using open communication and online project management software (e.g. Trello). We will also ensure regular breaks for our own self-care to promote the sustainability of this project.

Currency exchange volatility

We will exchange ADA into fiat upon receiving funds to mitigate this risk.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The artwork for the dApp will be sourced from our NFT project, Mushroom Mob, which will help save time.

Product design - up to 6 weeks after funding: Graphic and UX design, market research

• Key stakeholders: potential users, graphic and UX designers

Technical design - up to 8 weeks after funding: Develop smart contracts, source cloud infrastructure, implement design from key stakeholder outcomes identified in market research

Product development - up to 3 months after funding: write code for dApp UI, implement database

Test launch - 2-3 weeks

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Personnel for Development:

• Front End Website Coder: $3000 x 3 months
• Project Manager: $1000 x 3 months
• Advisor (Graphic and UX Designer): $1500 x 3 months
• Focus groups: $1000 x 2 months

Budget for Launch:

• Advertising Campaigns: $1000 x 3 months
• Incentives for users: $1000 x 3 months

$24,500 will fund 3 months of design, development and a test launch

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The Core Team are experienced working together and have successfully launched an NFT project, Mushroom Mob. We already have established connections with our community, and other Cardano NFT communities, and have a reputation as advocates of health and wellbeing.

Core Team

Audrey - Co-Founder of Mushroom Mob/Project Manager:

Registered clinician with Master of Health Sciences skilled in behaviour change and lifestyle interventions, multidisciplinary networks, Canva, blog/article writing, online adult health education.

Main focus: Networking, community growth, organise health and wellbeing workshops, resource/content development

https://www.linkedin.com/in/audreytaynz/

Johnny - Co-Founder of Mushroom Mob/Creative Director/Software Developer:

Skilled with Haskell, C#, JavaScript, web development, wallet integration, smart contracts.

Main focus: Art, blockchain and web development

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-alipate/

Scorchill - Team member of Mushroom Mob/Clinical Advisor:

Registered mental health clinician skilled in cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, psychoeducation and psychosocial rehabilitation services.

Main focus: Community engagement, resource/content development

We have engaged with Graphic, Game and Experience Designers who have agreed to provide advice during the Development stage if we are funded.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

We will likely return to Catalyst for further funding to develop future ideas.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

• Number of new dApp downloads each month
• Number of meaningful interactions, e.g. users registered in each monthly ‘wellbeing challenge’
• Growth of Discord community from month to month - a measure of increasing community support
• Qualitative experience on user experience

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Short-Term:

• Create a dApp which encourages simple self-care behaviours
• Increase Discord community by 10%

Mid-Term:

• Reach at least 20 dApp downloads
• Host monthly wellbeing challenges within the dApp
• Increase Discord community by an additional 10%
• Establish at least 3 partnerships with other Cardano projects for the rewards system

Long-Term:

• Improved mental and overall being within our community, determined by qualitative and quantitative data
• Establish ongoing partnerships with other Cardano projects for the rewards system

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

SDG subgoals:

By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Suicide mortality rate

#proposertoolsdg