Youth Mental Health and Well-Being Giving Initiative

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Young people are facing a mental health crisis. In many families, cultures, and communities, stigma keeps them from seeking help, and navigating the complex system is even harder.

Stanford is revolutionizing mental health care services. The concept—called allcove—is the first of-its-kind in the U.S. Created with, by, and for youth, allcove provides accessible and comprehensive early intervention services at low or no cost. At allcove, everyone is treated with the dignity and kindness they deserve.

Scaling Youth Mental Health Services

Half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14. Eighty percent of youth struggling with mental health challenges don’t have access to care. The number of providers does not meet demand, and lengthy waitlists mean that many will go for months without intervention while their condition spirals. Mental health disorders have a domino effect, derailing every aspect of a person’s life.

Stanford has successfully launched five allcove centers in California—providing startup and ongoing implementation support, training, resources, evaluation, and infrastructure to develop an allcove center. Each center is projected to serve approximately 1,000 youth ages 12-25 annually.

allcove is a space to find community, support, advice, or even just a moment of pause. Services include:

Mental health
Physical health
Education support & career coaching
Peer support
Family support
Substance use counseling

Meet the allcove Leaders

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing. Dr. Adelsheim knows providing approachable and relatable care is key to addressing mental health. He involves youth in the process of creating interventions because they are the ultimate experts in their own lives.

Program Director, Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing. Harrison spent over 20 years developing community-based programs to increase access to mental health. Her expertise in social work, public health, education, and mental health help ensure all the services at allcove centers are integrated.

“Having youth voice lead allcove means that every aspect of our centers is developed with our diverse young communities in mind.”

Samskruthi, allcove Youth Advisor

Opportunities for Impact

Philanthropy will help empower this radically different vision of care that meets our youth where they are. With your support, we aim to:

Build human infrastructure.

We must add team members for evaluation and research, administration, partnerships, facilities, and design. A strong team ensures quality services throughout our network of sites.

Create robust tech platforms.

A mobile app will help us reach youth not yet ready or able to access a center. We also hope to grow our database and research/evaluation tools to support staff and partner learning.