Chanya Crane creates Kind House as part of her suicide prevention Kindess Kampaign

The Kindness Kampaign is exemplified by the founder herself, Chanya Crane. Crane started out on her endeavor to spread awareness of suicide in 2021 with her Kindness Kampaign, a year after her spouse’s brother tragically passed away from suicide at the age of 15. A stream of family suicides caused Crane to take action after realizing she felt “hopeless” but discovered, “I need to keep going, there’s people out here who need to know they are loved.” Effectively, Crane went out with her goal to, as she states, “spread kindness and inclusion.” 

Nothing captures Crane’s view more than her current Kind House event going on this weekend, from Sept. 13 through 16. This will mark the two-year anniversary of the start of Crane’s Kindness Kampaign, and the second year of the Kind House event.

The roots of Crane’s Kampaign started in markets selling shirts and prints that inspire and give hope. These markets gave Crane the idea to create the Kind House, bringing the inspirational market to the home.

The Kind House is so much more than just a market in a home; it captures, as Crane puts it, what “make[s] your mind a kind place to live in.” Tackling this project head-on is quite literally what Crane is doing. Transforming the Kind House into “your mind” and turning it into “a kind place to live in.” 

Crane understands that the first step to help mental illness is to connect and not to jump into positive feelings.

The outside of the house is meant to represent the outside of the body, embodying all the negative impressions that can fester in one’s mind. Entering the front door represents being hit with culminating negative thoughts in the mind, which in turn leads to “burn out, and then thinking you’re not good enough, and self-criticizing yourself, and just this spiral that we can get into,” states Crane. The goal, Crane urges, is to be “relatable and raw with people” and help prevent those who start to idealize suicide by connecting with and showing them “[they’re] not alone in what they’re feeling because sometimes the feeling of suicide can be so shameful, and I don’t want that to be shameful. We need to talk about it!”

Traveling down the stairs visualizes anxious spiraling and getting down to that “last hope.” After getting “through this fog, … reconnect, take a step back and connect with [oneself] and maybe our inner child. Let’s be mindful and present, and let’s go through the house and start setting boundaries, and let’s be kind to our mind and kind to other people. Let’s build body confidence, just confidence in general,” says Crane. Leading out to the back patio connects one to the inner child before finally arriving at the driveway. Here, “once you’re more confident in yourself and where you’re at, it’s easier to connect with people.” Greeted with live music, the driveway shows a healthier exit to the mind, into a crowd of people to connect with and relate to.

Crane expresses that the house represents “this whole journey of what could be going on in our minds like it has in mine.” 

When asked for a takeaway from this experience, Crane said, “[Remember] that you’re not alone. If you connect with something here, and I wrote it, that’s someone [else] who connected with it. Just keep going. I want people to keep going, and I want them to know that they are loved and [there are] people that understand them. People don’t get that they matter, and I want them to know.”

By building the Kind House, Crane allows an experience of real emotion. The house is a journey through a healing mind. The constant interactive activities throughout the house help to discourage feelings of loneliness.

The vendors sprinkled throughout the experience show how beautiful and creative people are, while also allowing visitors to realize the same about themselves.

The Kind House is truly a healing experience. A person could stand in front of a mirror wanting to cry, then 10 minutes later be laughing with a complete stranger. The emotion Crane captures in her Kind House is exemplary, and one everyone can relate to, learn and heal from. The Kind House is exactly the kind of place for learning and growth while interacting and having fun. The Kind House not only teaches about mental health but also helps people to progress in their personal mental health struggles.

Along with the Kind House’s experience, Crane offers several vendors, live music and even therapist booths you can visit and chat with.

The Kind House will be open to visiting from Sept. 13 through 16  at 127 S 600 W, Provo, Utah. It is open from  5 p.m. to 10 p.m., or from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday. The entrance fee is $10 online or $15 at the door. Follow Chanya @thekindnesskampaign to learn more and get to know the amazing person behind the Kindness Kampaign.