Interact for Health awards second round of grants to area nonprofits to support youth mental health


Interact for Health awarded a second wave of community grants aimed at increasing youth mental health prevention services in school-based settings.

This is the second announcement from the organization’s new five-year strategic plan, which has a strong focus on improving mental health and well-being in the region, particularly for youth. This additional $1M investment builds on the previous wave of $3.7M in community grants and the organization’s extensive work in school-based services.

The six grantees include:

• Family Nurturing Center of Kentucky, $175,000 – Collaborations with with Learning Grove to provide site-based services in two of their 14 locations for preschoolers. A trained specialist will be on site two days per week at each location, with the fifth day available for teacher consultation and training, staff meetings and parent meetings.

• 1N5, $200,000 – Through their program Building Resiliency in Youth, 1N5 seeks to improve students’ level of knowledge and efficacy to cope with and receive help for mental, emotional, and social stressors that may contribute to mental distress and normalize mental health and break down barriers that prevent youth from seeking help.

• Best Point, $108,000 – Best Point aims to integrate trauma-informed care and evidence-based prevention programs within their School-Based Behavioral Health programs. This funding will allow the expansion of Best Point’s programs with up to six additional schools to instill a caring and empathetic environment for students who have undergone adverse experiences.

• Child Focus, $192,000 – Expansion of Signs of Suicide Prevention (SOS) Program – which teaches students to identify signs and symptoms in themselves or a friend and to reach out for help from a trusted adult. SOS combines two powerful suicide prevention strategies: universal education about depression and suicide and the importance of seeking help, and depression screening to identify students in need.

• Preston Brown Foundation, $150,000 – Expansion of its REFUEL and Rally Champs programs. REFUEL trains sports coaches to train in mental health first aid and provides mindfulness and resiliency training to students. Rally Champs focuses its efforts on recruiting mentors for students and providing those mentors with mental health first aid. Both programs aim to normalize conversations regarding mental health, improve awareness of available services and increase parental and community involvement in youth mental health programming.

• Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Programs (UMADAOP), $200,000 – With this initiative — Extended School-Based Prevention and Mental Health Wellness Kinship Wraparound Programming– UMADAOP is working to mitigate the risk factors and enhance protective factors to reduce the increasing rates of youth substance use and behavioral and mental health needs. The goal is to equip youth with strategies for making healthy choices and problem-solving, build positive interaction with peers, resist negative influences, improve communication skills and increase academic performance.

“We’re thrilled to work with these established, trusted partners in response to growing needs in the youth mental health space. By working to scale proven, prevention-based services, we’re able to meet youth where they’re at and reduce additional treatment needs with early interventions,” said Interact President and CEO, Kate Schroder.

The primary focus of this funding is to provide school-wide interventions for everyone – students, educators and staff – to promote positive social, emotional and behavioral wellness, and will result in expanded services in over 40 Ohio and Kentucky schools. This funding also expands specialized interventions and supports for students who are at-risk for mental health concerns. According to the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports Framework, these methods are effective for over 90% of students.

“We’re excited about this diverse portfolio of partners because it will allow us to learn how to better support efforts of youth mental health prevention in our region. In order to improve mental health, it requires promotion, prevention and treatment; but oftentimes prevention efforts are the least funded,” said Deanna Hillard, Program Manager of Youth Mental Health.

For more information, visit interactforhealth.org.

Interact for Health


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *