Feeling better

Public health experts say America is experiencing a mental health crisis– particularly among teens and young adults. Roughly a third of Americans under 30 have a negative view of their own mental health and about half say that managing their stress is a big challenge. The good news is this is getting a lot of attention, and there are many people working to find solutions.

For this project, find a person, a program, or a new resource that is aimed at addressing the youth mental health crisis. Check out the student-produced examples below for inspiration.

Use a solutions journalism framework to cover how people are working to improve the mental health of teens and young adults. Solutions reporting encourages journalists to not only cover society’s problems– also dig into how people are working to solve them.

There are four key pillars to solutions journalism:

1. Response: the story focuses on a response to a social problem — and on how that response has worked, or why it hasn’t
2. Insight: the story shows what can be learned from a response and why it matters to the audience
3. Evidence: the story provides data or qualitative results that indicate effectiveness (or a lack thereof)
4. Limitations: the story places responses in context; it doesn’t shy away from revealing shortcomings

Watch SRL’s LEVEL-UP TUTORIAL SERIES before you begin filming

Create a solutions journalism video story about how people are working to improve the mental health of teens and young adults.

You can do a story about a person, a program, new research or tools. Be sure to include evidence the approach is or isn’t working and its limitations.

Howard University student Meltu Angel Korkor started support.chatt so that young people across the country could have a safe place to talk about their mental health struggles.

After feeling isolated as new immigrants to the United States, siblings Rohan and Anya found comfort in books and reading. They started @letslearnfoundation in 2018 to provide books and other reading materials to students who don't have access to books of their own.

Piano Pals is a music and mentorship program in Maryland that provides young students with free piano lessons from older students. Mentors find that helping other students helps them destress and play music.

Safe Oregon is an anonymous tip line that young people can use if they see or hear something that they are concerned about.

The DuPage Action Team is a youth mental health initiative outside of Chicago