Get To Know Our Youth Mental Health Partners
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens and young adults, a staggering statistic that tells a story about a generation in crisis. The lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing toxicity of social media, tense political climate and alarming rate of public violence are just a few of the factors leading kids into crisis.
And though 15% of teens suffered from a major depressive episode in 2021, 60% did not receive treatment during that time. It's clear our kids are struggling.
In May of 2023, Rite Aid Healthy Futures launched its youth mental health initiative, aimed at addressing the crisis ravaging communities across the United States. Here’s a closer look at our six new partners leading the charge to connect kids with critical care – and save lives.
Active Minds
Active Minds has been in operation for nearly 20 years. In that time, the organization has grown into the largest nonprofit mobilizing a culture centered around mental health through promoting mental health awareness and education for young adults in the U.S. Alison Malmon founded the organization when she was just a junior at the University of Pennsylvania following the tragic loss of her older brother, Brian, to suicide.
“After my brother’s death, and knowing how preventable it was, I resolved — no matter what — to do something to change the way we approach mental health in this country,” she said.
When Alison founded Active Minds, she rooted the organization in a space where young adults often struggle: school campuses. Today, Active Minds has a presence on more than 600 colleges and high schools. To date, nearly 8 million students have been impacted by its work.
Each year, an average of 15,000 students join Active Minds chapters where they act as passionate advocates and educators for mental health care. This peer-to-peer approach encourages students to talk and learn about mental health, helping reduce the stigma that prevents many teens and young adults from seeking help.
A recent study by the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank that conducts research, demonstrated how Active Minds’ programs and advocates are making an impact. Through a longitudinal study of more than 1,100 students at 12 colleges, the RAND Corporation found:
Students involved with Active Minds are more likely to reach out to a classmate or friend who is struggling with a mental health issue such as depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts.
Among the student body, Active Minds’ presence increases knowledge of and positive attitudes toward mental health.
Active Minds’ education programs meaningfully influence students’ knowledge and attitudes toward mental health issues and their behaviors.
Funding from Healthy Futures will allow Active Minds to expand its K-12 network to 15 high schools in Detroit, Oakland and Los Angeles. Active Minds expects it could reach as many as 7,500 students through the programs. This support from Healthy Futures will aid in Active Minds' goal of bringing its proven peer-to-peer model to 1,000 new K-12 schools in 1,000 days.
The Trevor Project
According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people, and LGBTQ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight and cisgender peers. The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ young people between the ages of 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S. — a heartbreaking statistic that reflects how discrimination, stigma and the current political climate impact kids in our communities. The Trevor Project has made it their mission to bring that number down to zero.
Since its founding in 1998, Trevor has grown into the nation’s leader in suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ young people. The nonprofit works to save young LGBTQ lives by providing free and secure crisis services via a phone lifeline, text and chat. Trevor’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 to support LGBTQ young people who are struggling with issues such as coming out, navigating their identity, mental health and thoughts of self-harm. In the fiscal year of 2022 alone, The Trevor Project directly served over 260,000 crisis contacts (calls/texts/chats) from LGBTQ youth who’ve reached out for support.
Trevor also operates innovative research, advocacy, public training and peer support programs. Its annual national surveys are among the largest and most diverse surveys of LGBTQ young people in the U.S. ever conducted, and provide critical insights into some of the unique stressors and suicide risk factors faced by LGBTQ young people.
The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People found that 41% of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year — and those who are transgender, nonbinary, and/or people of color reported higher rates than their peers. Yet, 56% who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it.
Trevor’s advocacy team works at the local, state, and federal levels to advocate for legislation that protects the rights of LGBTQ people.
Amid an increasingly hostile political climate — with more than 600 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year alone — LGBTQ young people continue to report significantly high rates of mental health challenges and suicide risk, and experiences of anti-LGBTQ stigma and victimization contribute to these disparities.
However, Trevor’s research underscores the protective nature of affirming homes and schools, the importance of trans-inclusive policies, and the ways in which we can support and advocate for the LGBTQ young people in our lives. We all have a role to play in creating a safer, more inclusive world for LGBTQ young people to thrive openly as their authentic selves.
Support from Healthy Futures will help fund The Trevor Project’s crisis services team and key program areas, strategic initiatives to increase the sustainability of service, an increase in volunteer capacity, and continued integration with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 988.
If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Project's trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Help, or by texting 678-678.
The Steve Fund
Did you know that the suicide rate among Black teens has doubled since 2014? Or that 1 in 3 Latinx students report feeling sad or lonely? The youth mental health crisis is hitting kids and teens of color hard, and gaps in mental health care services mean that support is often hard to come by. For many kids of color, the stigma around mental health topics only makes it more intimidating to seek help.
Notably, 1 in 5 young people of color aged 15-24, or around 7.5 million, struggle with a mental health disorder. Mental health challenges increase risk for academic and career challenges, substance abuse, a clash with the justice system and self-harm.
Young people of color face disparities in mental health care and outcomes. For example:
Black and Latinx children are 14% less likely than white youth to receive treatment for depression
Black teenagers are 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide
Only 8% of the lowest-income communities have a mental health specialist
In spite of the facts, lack of awareness, entrenched stigma and racial disparities keep most of these young people from getting the help, hope and healing they need to thrive.
The Steve Fund was founded to address these challenges, and it’s grown into the nation’s leading organization focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color. Partnering with universities and colleges, the Steve Fund enhances existing mental health efforts by understanding the needs of students of color and other intersecting identities and creating programs and resources designed to serve them.
Here are just a few of the ways that the Steve Fund serves youth of color every day:
Seminars and Workshops: The Steve Fund offers virtual and in-person workshops to youth of color and those who serve them. These comprehensive events touch on topics such as the physical and emotional impacts of systemic racism, maintaining individual and collective wellness, and healing from racialized experiences such as discrimination.
Equity in Mental Health Framework: The Steve Fund partners with higher education institutions to develop, implement and refine on-campus programs to support the emotional well-being and mental health of students of color. Through these partnerships, campuses can provide equity-minded resources to students.
With support from Rite Aid Healthy Futures, the Steve Fund will launch a new initiative to inspire and empower young people of color with a geographic focus on New York and California. Grant funding will help expand the Fund’s resources for young people of color and their families, as well as support nonprofit partnerships focused on youth mental health.
“Notwithstanding intergenerational racial trauma, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath has presented a new set of intense and sustained challenges to our nation's minoritized populations,” said Evan Rose, president of the board of directors of The Steve Fund. “This partnership will bring together expert-backed tools for building hope and resilience, technical assistance and capacity-building resources. As a result of this work, many more young people of color across the United States, their families, caregivers, peers and the institutions that support them will be engaged in effective learning opportunities and experience increased access to culturally relevant mental health services, programs and resources.”
Boys & Girls Club of America
If you grew up in the United States, chances are good that you’ve heard of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Founded over 160 years ago, the youth-serving organization has become well-known for providing youth with a safe, reliable space to learn, have fun and spend time with caring mentors during out-of-school time. These programs have had a positive impact on generations of young people and continue to support over 3.6 million kids and teens at more than 5,000 Clubs today.
Believing every child has the potential to be great, Boys & Girls Clubs provide so much more than just a warm meal and a safe space for a child; the organization also offers essential resources to support overall mental health and well-being, real-life work experiences, art programs, STEM education programs, sports and more to help kids realize their full potential.
Today’s young people are navigating living in a world on display through social media, and dealing with challenges like cyber-bullying, economic instability, housing and food insecurity, discrimination and injustice, school and community gun violence, displacement due to forced migration, parental deployment, parental incarceration, and so much more.
Boys & Girls Clubs provide an accepting, nurturing environment that responds to kids’ physical, mental and emotional needs as they carry the weight of these experiences on their backs.
With two-thirds of America’s youth experiencing a traumatic event by the age of 16, Boys & Girls Clubs work is critical, which is why the organization has set a goal for all Clubs to be trauma-informed by 2026, an approach that takes the child’s full life experiences into consideration to ensure an emotionally safe and inclusive environment.
Using this trauma-informed approach, Boys & Girls Clubs engage youth in high-quality programming that teaches social-emotional skills like stress management and good decision-making. Whether it's through virtual therapy or small group activities that boost self-esteem, Clubs empower youth to recognize and value their emotional needs and build skills to grow into strong adults that can engage in every opportunity that comes their way.
Funding from Healthy Futures will support Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s related efforts in New York City, including training staff to identify signs or symptoms of youth in distress, creating and implementing trauma-informed plans, and launching or accelerating services tailored to local needs.
The Jed Foundation (JED)
The transition from child to teenager to young adult can be exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming. That’s why it’s important for parents and caregivers to acknowledge the conflicting emotions that may arise with change and talk openly about mental health with the young people in their lives. It’s important to ask how young people are doing, let them know everyone goes through challenges, and that you are there to listen and help them navigate these ever-changing times. Connection is crucial during growth periods.
As a leading nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicides among teens and young adults nationwide, The Jed Foundation (JED) meets young people where they are. JED equips youth with resources to help support their mental health; strengthens mental health programs, policies, and systems at schools; and mobilizes community members to better support teens and young adults in their lives.
JED believes in a comprehensive, public health approach to promote mental health and prevent suicide because both are complex, layered issues. Their programs are grounded in an evidence-based Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention for Colleges and Universities and for High Schools. This comprehensive public health approach focuses on seven domains: developing life skills, promoting social connectedness, identifying those at risk, increasing help-seeking behaviors, providing mental health and substance abuse services, following crisis management procedures, and identifying ways to remove or limit access to items and places that could be used in a suicide.
If young people have a strong sense of community, they are less likely to struggle with mental health or suicidality. Schools are the main ecosystem for our youth and where they spend a majority of their young lives – shaping their academic futures, personal identities, self-confidence and relationships. The JED Campus or JED High School programs helps schools create healthy and connected school environments. JED works with more than 520 colleges, universities and high schools – comprising 5.5 million students or nearly 16% of the U.S. student population – to equip their communities with evidence-based resources to create a culture of care in which all students feel seen and supported.
Recently, JED partnered with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, to develop and deploy the District Comprehensive Approach (DCA). This is a first-of-its-kind partnership between AASA and JED to guide districts across the country in a transformational program to support the emotional well-being of preK-12 students. Based on JED’s proven approach to preventing suicide and improving student outcomes, the DCA is an evidence-based framework that combines expert support, best practices, and data-driven guidance to protect mental health and prevent suicide for millions of students.
Support from Rite Aid Healthy Futures will support the partnership and enable JED and AASA to engage more school districts across the country, starting in Detroit and rural Ohio.
McLean Hospital in Boston
A leader in psychiatric care, research and education, McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a member of Mass General Brigham. McLean is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by psychiatric illness by providing the highest quality, compassionate, specialized and effective clinical care.
Each year, McLean Hospital serves over 10,700 individuals and many more beyond its hospital walls, and their efforts to make services more readily available to people of all backgrounds are directly addressing racial health disparities and injustice. Let’s take a closer look at just one of McLean’s programs seeking to better meet the needs of youth from historically marginalized communities.
The McLean Anxiety Mastery Program (MAMP) works closely with children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 who present with anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety and panic disorders. MAMP’s Social Justice Task Force (SJTF) specifically works on behalf of marginalized youth by increasing access to care, enhancing culturally responsive care and increasing community involvement.
As a part of its efforts, the SJTF is connecting with other McLean programs and community organizations to create partnerships that foster diversity, inclusion and equity through engagement with traditionally underserved populations.
Funding from Healthy Futures will support McLean as it pilots a foundational support group for parents of children with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders and increases resources for teens who may be experiencing mental health challenges, suicidal thoughts or self-harm urges.
McLean will also use grant funding to continue building its CARE Initiative, a measurement-based care approach that provides all patients receiving care at McLean’s Nancy and Richard Simches Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with a standardized mental health assessment designed to improve diagnosis and ultimate outcomes.
