New research shows OMM’s school-wide impact

Our Minds Matter is proud to announce the release of When Teens Lead the Way, a white paper detailing the first-ever quantitative evidence that our peer-to-peer clubs create school-wide impact.

click here to download the full report 

You can also find it alongside the past IRB studies and internal evaluations available on our Research Page.

video from our Launch Event

We were thrilled to host a virtual brown bag panel conversation about these findings on Tuesday, October 21.

 

 

Event Summary: 

Upstream prevention is essential to solving the youth mental health crisis, especially in a time of rising loneliness, social isolation, and rapid upheaval from AI.  Our Minds Matter is meeting this challenge in a unique way: by empowering teens themselves to take action for their own mental wellbeing and shape healthier school cultures for all.

Now, for the first time, new research provides evidence that our peer-to-peer model creates school-wide impact.

Data suggests OMM creates benefits beyond participating students — reaching the entire student body.

Moderator Aras Jizan, Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation and former OMM Board Member, facilitated a dynamic conversation with researchers, leaders, and students from Our Minds Matter:

  • G Wei Ng, PhD (Our Minds Matter)

  • Jordan Booker, PhD (University of Missouri)

  • Douglas Gotel, LICSW, RPT-S  (DC Public Schools), and

  • Chase Pantezzi, former OMM student.

Taken alongside previous years of external research and consistent internal evaluations, this new study helps bolster our core belief:

OMM’s work equipping teens with mental health skills ripples throughout our society.

View our recording of this short virtual session to:

  • Make sense of the research findings and what they mean for the youth mental health community.

  • Elevate key leverage points that drive impact in teen mental health interventions.

  • Share actionable strategies that will be relevant for school district leaders, school mental health professionals, institutional funders, mental health experts, and all of us invested in ending the youth mental health crisis.