webinar

Youth Leaders on Mental Health

PAST EVENT
July 23, 2025

On July 23, GTY and the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy convened young changemakers and field leaders to discuss shifting the narrative on youth mental health, increasing awareness, and expanding access to opportunities for healing and well-being.

Watch recording

Top Takeaway

Reimagining mental health systems to truly support young people will require centering youth voice.

Key opportunities exist to:

  • expand peer-led approaches
  • eliminate punitive and stigmatized responses to seeking care 
  • support young people to impact policy change; and
  • invest in storytelling and narrative change to normalize diversity in mental health experiences.

Recording

More Takeaways

  1. Earning the trust of youth is paramount. Strategies for building trust include expanding peer-focused policies, programs and services in clinical and non-clinical spaces and redesigning crisis systems so they are not punishing or punitive for youth.
  2. Programs that create safe spaces and authentic social connections can help alleviate social isolation and loneliness.
  3. Students prioritize evidence-based mental health practices to increase school safety and, equipped with advocacy skills, are pushing school districts and state lawmakers for increased mental health supports.
  4. Storytelling about mental health helps people feel less alone, dismantles stigma, contributes to narrative shift, and builds a shared language about asking for help.
  5. Often we focus on when things go wrong—but what does it look like to create a future for youth where things can go right? It’s important to create spaces for happiness and joy, and opportunities for youth to thrive.

Resources

Frameworks Institute’s Report: Changing the Narrative Together: Three Effective Strategies for Talking about Youth Mental Health

Center for Scholars and Storytellers. UCLA

Youth Mental Health Tracker: The Data Behind the Divide: Youth Voices on Politics, Family, and Mental Health

The Hidden Healing Fund

What Can Philanthropy Do?

Philanthropy can promote shared learning, fund programs that uplift youth perspectives, foster collaboration among stakeholders, and advocate for systemic change that centers the well-being of young people.

Memorable Quotes

It comes down to trust. Youth won’t reach out for help if they think that they’ll be punished, ignored or misunderstood. Despite changes in how mental health has been talked about in recent years, many young people have memories of how being honest about mental health or open about needing care became a liability – because of school discipline policies, broken crisis systems or cultural stigma. We are trying to build a world where seeking care can feel safe, and young people are valued and heard.

We are advocating for expanded peer-led policies, programs and services in clinical and non-clinical spaces and redesigning crisis systems so they are not punishing or punitive for youth.

—Saanvi Arora, Youth Power Project

Our approach is holistic, addressing not just the symptoms but the root causes of mental health challenges by ensuring access to resources like literacy programs and community-based support.

Fostering well-being means investing in youth as whole individuals, not just focusing narrowly on mental health issues but also supporting their broader development and success.

—Dr. Hazel Guzman, Carmel Hill Fund

We follow the lead of our students as far as what they feel like is important, and that means integrating their voices into every level of decision-making—from the classroom to policy advocacy.

Mental health discussions can’t be separated from the broader context of making schools safer and more inclusive environments that support every child’s well-being.

—Mikayla Arciaga, Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)

We see the long term potential of building a coalition of partners across healthcare and education and philanthropy to realize the full potential of this approach.

—Tim Daly, EdNavigator

Contact the Speakers

If you’d like to follow up with any of these speakers, please reach out to GTY.

Speakers

Mikayla Arciaga

Georgia Advocacy Director, Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)

Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., works to connect parents, students, and community members with the resources needed to engage in the state policymaking process. She leverages her experiences as a teacher, coach and mentor of young people to advocate for more diverse and inverse classrooms, that are safe and welcoming for every child and their families.

Mikayla coordinates IDRA’s Education Policy Fellows program. The 2022-23 class of fellows is gaining real-world advocacy experience and training during the Texas and Georgia legislative sessions, representing advocates and communities of color. Mikayla guides the fellows as they learn about policy advocacy, work with coalitions, students and families to craft a community-centered education policy agenda, and join a network of advocates and policy influencers focused on improving racial equity in education policymaking spaces. On March 31, 2025, she was honored with a resolution by the Georgia General Assembly House of Representatives for Women’s History Month for her work to connect parents, students and community members with the resources needed to engage in the state policymaking process.

While still in the classroom, Mikayla spent her summers working on school board-level policy. She collaborated with and led a team of policy fellows assisting school board members in metro Atlanta and across the country on several projects to improve outcomes for marginalized students including a line-item review of an $800 million budget, an audit of almost 200 school board policies, and an analysis of both school and state-level per-pupil expenditure data. These projects cumulated in a comprehensive strategy to increase outcomes for the most underserved students in the key areas of policy and budget.

Throughout her work at the school district level, she recognized the need for high-quality accountability processes in the public school system, which motivated her to pursue a master’s degree in program evaluation in the educational environment from the University of Florida. Mikayla’s policy interests center on culturally inclusive learning environments, accessibility for students with disabilities, and authentic engagement for parents and families. Outside of education policy, her other great love has been to make swimming accessible to learners of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. As a swim coach, she has worked to create a space focusing on sportsmanship, community, and joy, bringing home the first city championship in school history..

Saanvi Arora

Executive Director, Youth Power Project

Saanvi Arora is a public policy and computer science student at UC Berkeley and the Executive Director of the Youth Power Project, a youth-led organization that empowers young people under 25 to inform local, state, and federal policymaking based on their own experiences and has introduced/passed over a dozen state and federal policies.

She is focused on understanding the intersection between public policy, technology, and community attitudes towards health, and published a paper in the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2020 regarding the potential for the Internet of Medical Things to reduce costs and barriers associated with healthcare. She has also been recognized for her contributions to key policies improving access to reproductive, sexual, and mental healthcare for young people, and has written and/or advised numerous state and federal policies/initiatives on the subject matters.

Recently, she drove the youth-led effort to write, introduce, and pass S.Res.769, declaring an adolescent mental health emergency & advancing experience-informed recommendations for state and local actors to respond, unanimously through the U.S. Senate. Overall, she is invested in bridging gaps between successful policymaking and younger generations by advocating for cultural, educational, and institutional improvements that encourage youth civic engagement and promote free expression.

Dr. Hazel Guzman

Program Officer, Adolescent Mental Health, Carmel Hill Fund

Dr. Hazel Guzman, a psychodynamically-trained psychologist, brings over 15 years of experience in mental health clinical practice and non-profit leadership to her role as Program Officer of Adolescent Mental Health at Carmel Hill Fund. Trained in a range of evidence-based modalities, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Perinatal Child-Parent Psychotherapy, and Triple P, she has worked as a practitioner for all ages. She holds the distinguished endorsement from the New York State Association of Infant Mental Health as an Infant Mental Health Mentor.
Prior to joining CHF, Dr. Guzman served as Chief Program Officer at Northside Center for Child Development, Inc., a Harlem-based non-profit agency providing educational and behavioral health services. In this role, she oversaw all the agency’s programming.

With substantial expertise in her field, Dr. Guzman’s impact reaches beyond direct clinical practice and program management, extending powerfully into early childhood education. She developed and delivered comprehensive training on child development and mental health to early childhood education centers throughout New York City. Her work has emphasized the critical role of nurturing social-emotional development during the formative years, and the importance of integrating social-emotional learning frameworks into educational settings to support lifelong well-being and resilience. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College, enriching the educational experience of future mental health professionals.

Dr. Guzman’s leadership also includes advocacy for policy reform and equity for marginalized communities. She has served on multiple New York City coalitions advocating for improved access to mental health services to diverse populations and on the Board of Directors of the New York Zero to Three (NYZTT) Network, a community of professionals committed to strengthening the development of children during their first three years.

Marissa Howdershelt

New Deal for Youth Changemaker

Marissa Howdershelt (they/them) is a queer, nonbinary individual with lived experience of mental illness and a strong background in mental health advocacy. As a New Deal for Youth Changemaker, they bring a unique and deeply personal perspective to their work. Marissa has engaged with both traditional and non-traditional methods of healing in their journey toward mental wellness. They are committed to envisioning a future where personhood and lived experience are central to the treatment of mental health challenges. Marissa also recognizes the critical importance of accessible resources to ensure that all individuals have the opportunity to thrive.

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