Active Minds
Active Minds is a national leader for young adult mental health advocacy and suicide prevention. Now in its sixteenth year, Active Minds is at more than 800 colleges and high schools nationwide, including 550 student-led chapters. Active Minds programs and services empower students to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, create communities of support, and ultimately save lives. Below are some highlighted resources, see website for all resources:
Program: Basic VAR: Validate, Appreciate, Refer Basic V-A-R is a guide to how to respond to everyday troubles in a helpful way. For many situations, you don’t have to be an expert to help – you just have to be there. Have a conversation to let someone know, I’m here for you, and then refer them to additional sources of support. Link includes overview of VAR program and links to purchase workshop and tabling kits to facilitate the program.
Project LETS
Project LETS is a national grassroots organization and movement led by and for folks with lived experience of mental illness/madness, Disability, trauma, & neurodivergence. We specialize in building just, responsive, and transformative peer support collectives and community mental health care structures that do not depend on state-sanctioned systems that trap our folks in the medical/prison-industrial complex. We work for and with multiply marginalized folks in our communities to provide access, political education, & material resources that are needed to survive and thrive. We believe in a world without systems of oppression, where non-carceral responses to crises are the norm!
Peer Mental Health Advocates Model The Peer Mental Health Advocate (PMHA) model was developed by Project LETS -- based on core foundations and principles of Certified Peer Recovery Specialist curricula, and Intentional Peer Support. On Sunday, December 6th, 2015, Project LETS at Brown University officially launched the PMHA program, a peer support service for students living with mental health issues/mental illness, disability, trauma, and/or neurodivergence (or, for students who just need some support -- no labels necessary). PMHAs are students who have lived experience of mental illness, trauma, disability, and/or neurodivergence, and work one-on-one with students in long-term peer support and advocacy partnerships.
PMHA Chapters
The Jed Foundation
The Jed Foundation is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation's teens and young adults. JED is leading the way to a comprehensive, community-based model of protecting student emotional health and preventing suicide at schools across the country. Working with campus leaders and professionals, JED helps to create campus-wide prevention and intervention strategies and advises on best-practice mental health policies, programs and services. Their website is full of resources and programs for students in college, high school, and their families and communities. Below are some highlighted resources:
Program - Set to Go: Information, tools and guidance for mental/emotional health during the transition from high school to college, careers and adulthood.
Webinar - JED'S Comprehensive Approach: Integrating the Equity in Mental Health Framework
The Steve Fund
The Steve Fund is the nation’s only organization focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color. Offers resources such as the Equity in Mental Health Framework to help colleges/universities support the mental health of students of color.
Young, Gifted, At-Risk and Resilient: A Video Toolkit to Support the Wellbeing of Students of Color Scholars and practitioners have informed this effort through a holistic approach. Understanding the space and place in which students of color operate provides us with a lens to examine the multiple dimensions of students’ academic and social contexts on and around their campuses. This includes not only the physical components of campus climate, but also the virtual contexts that impact students’ sense of belonging.
For Students
Tool - Self Evaluator: The Self Evaluator was developed for ULifeline by Duke University School of Medicine and screens for thirteen of the most common mental health conditions that college students face. This screening does not provide a diagnosis, but identifies problems that could be impacting thoughts, feelings and behaviors. The screening process also provides information on these conditions and how to reach out for help.
To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA)
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
Starting a UChapter: TWLOHA UChapters is a network of student organizations on college and university campuses that exists to embody the mission and vision of TWLOHA. Through on-campus events, programming, and fundraising initiatives, each chapter serves as a voice of inspiration and education for their peers. See link for details on how to apply and establish a UChapter at your university.
TWLOHA Blog: Blog posts about a variety of mental health, depression and suicide topics from people with lived experience.