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The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Anita May Rosenstein campus provides an intergenerational community — and housing — for LGBTQ+ youth and seniors experiencing homelessness. The Center has 202 affordable housing units and it also offers several programs and services including counseling, support groups, job assistance, skills training and connections to health and mental health care, all while fostering community between the seniors and youth staying at the Center.

The Gonzales Youth Council, which allows young people to advise local government on issues that affect them, has inspired other youth councils to sprout up in neighboring communities. Youth commissioners participate in a paid summer fellowship to learn about city and school district processes, and the council has made several recommendations that have gone on to become ordinances, including fines for adults who facilitate underage drinking.

Cree youth in Calgary, Alberta, are expressing their views and experiences by writing, recording, and performing original music. The program, called Nikamo, is part of a collaboration between a local theater and a nonprofit focused on supporting youth mental health.

The Hacey Health Initiative’s Tombey project works to connect young people — especially young girls — with reliable, accurate information about sexual and reproductive rights and health (SRHR), as well as relevant sexual and reproductive health services. The Tombey Project offers an online SRHR course, a “sexiontary” full of SRHR terms and definitions and connections to youth-friendly counseling services. Since 2016, over 3,000 youth have taken the Tombey Project’s online course and it’s estimated that over 100,000 young people across the country have been impacted by the Tombey Project in some way.

Amongst an increased need for mental health care, Monadnock Family Services is offering group therapy to children to get them in for some level of care as staff shortages make offering individual therapy too difficult. The American Psychological Association found that group therapy is as effective as individual therapy for most conditions — as well as more efficient. Monadnock Family Services offers a variety of groups depending on a patient’s interests and identity, like groups for those who enjoy hiking to groups for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Creative Minds club provides a creative, supportive outlet for high school students amid a rise in teen homicides due to gun violence and racial tension. Students in the club meet to discuss their feelings, grieve and participate in forms of self-expression like writing and artwork to help manage their mental health.

Elementary, middle, secondary, and alternative schools are partnering with the nonprofit Elev8 Baltimore to provide enrichment programs for students after school. The nonprofit’s aim is to keep students away from danger and crime by keeping them in school buildings, so the programs are tailored to student interests at each school.

Through Youth Voice Youth Vote, nearly 800 young people in Portland took part in a participatory budgeting process to decide how to spend $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding. The winning projects, including a paid internship program, expanded access to menstrual products, and a job resource fair, are now in the process of being implemented.

The Sow a Seed for a Girl Child Development Initiative raises funds to help girls in Jos Local Government Area enroll in school, many of whom have never attended or had to drop out due to financial constraints. In the fall of 2023, the organization was able to offer support to 27 girls, including through targeted lessons to help them prepare over the summer.

The Yerwa Youth Initiative aims to improve children's mental health and well-being by providing support and hosting training sessions to teach youth how to manage their mental health in a positive way. Those who participate in the program are then encouraged to help start Mental Health Clubs in their schools to share what they’ve learned and connect with other youth in need of support.

Lawrence Hall’s transitional housing in Chicago is a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the foster care system to live and receive wraparound support while they get ready for the next step in their lives, whatever that may be. Many of the staff also identify as LGBTQ+ and help them learn to cook, keep a job, or answer questions about things like hormone therapy and gender-affirming care.

The student-led SzKTP program provides peer mentorship and application help to high school students interested in attending Corvinus University, with the goal of improving higher education opportunities for students from low-income and disadvantaged areas. Once they’re accepted to Corvinus, students in the program continue to receive support and guidance, as well as a stipend to help lessen the burden of university-related costs.

Transform Cincy provides free, personalized styling experiences for trans and gender-nonconforming youth who may not be safe or comfortable shopping in public spaces. The organization has helped hundreds of youth find a wardrobe that helps them feel like their true selves and offers events and resources for the local LGBTQ+ community, from board game nights to screen printing classes.

Across the United States, Friends of the Children is matching kindergartners with professional, paid mentors they will meet with for a few hours every week until they graduate high school. The nonprofit has been successfully breaking the cycle of generational poverty in over 30 cities since 1993.

The Be a Man initiative facilitates clubs where youth learn to reexamine gender norms, talk about how to prevent violence, address harmful stereotypes, and promote healthy relationships. More than 2,000 young people have participated in Be a Man activities since the program began, and surveys show participants demonstrated greater self-esteem, improved communication and critical thinking, and stronger empathy.

The Pad-A-Girl project by the Citizen Participation Advancement and Awareness Initiative (CPAAI) helps those experiencing period poverty, particularly girls in primary and secondary schools and underprivileged women. CPAAI offers washable pads that are good for five years, installed pad banks in area schools and taught the women and girls how to create washable pads themselves. The program launched in 2020 and has since helped more than 7,000 women and girls across 25 schools and communities.

Boys Without Borders provides boys who experienced sexual abuse with a support system and educational resources to help them overcome social and mental health issues they may be facing. With the group’s 65 student volunteers, they have helped more than 2,500 boys since launching in 2020.

The Boys to Men Mentoring Network aims to create nurturing, intentional spaces for boys to connect to build mindful relationships with safe, trusted men in the community. The Network hosts weekly talking circle support groups in 20 area middle and high schools where male mentors share their life experiences and lessons learned. Group data has shown that boys who participate in the weekly talking circles have improved grades, fewer disciplinary problems, increased emotional intelligence and improved social skills.

Girls STEM encourages female students in Ukraine to consider fields in the sciences through mentorship from women in STEM professions, team hackathons, and interactive excursions. As of 2022, the initiative had more than 100 branches based at schools and universities with more than 10,000 girls participating.

Talk Overdose provides peer-delivered education to youth in seventh to twelfth grade about overdose prevention. The group of teens also provides naloxone training, hosts guest speakers and interactive workshops that teach empathetic listening skills. Talk Overdose was formed in 2021 and has since reached over 1,500 youth across the country and has stated to offer Indigenous culture workshops, as a connection to culture has shown to have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing.

A summer youth-employment program at a local school district led to a student-led forum where Black high school students could open up about their experiences with mental health, racism and stigma. Students who participated in the forum could also join a peer-mentoring program where students worked with middle schoolers to mentor them on how to understand and cope with their feelings.

The Twin Falls Optimist Youth House cares for at-risk youth and those who have aged out of the foster care system. Youth can join the program once they turn 18 and receive a place to live plus valuable life skills, employment and education assistance. The House opened five years ago and can house 17 people at a time, though there are plans to expand. Since opening, it has helped 50 kids in need.

The School for Courage is a community gathering space and support program for girls in Pirita, Romania, where pervasive poverty and a lack of services have contributed to high rates of underage pregnancy. Girls who take part in the program can get resources about menstrual and reproductive health, learn basic skills such as cooking and sewing, play games or use the internet with their friends, and get access to supplies such as deodorant and toothpaste.

The Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP) works with socio-economically disadvantaged communities, providing social services like healthcare and employment assistance with a primary focus on educating youth. SISP has focused on educating the local female population, which has helped empower them economically and led to several women receiving jobs outside of their village. SISP has also educated several students who were forced to drop out of traditional school and provides supplementary activities along with their standard education, such as skating and coding clubs.

The GreenHouse provides after-school programming for children living in one of Sacramento’s most densely-populated affordable housing communities. Over the past 20 years, roughly 1,000 children have participated in the organization’s programs, including homework help, social events, internship and leadership opportunities, and more.