Pediatric & Adolescent Advocacy Organizations

Active Minds empowers students to change the perception about mental health on college campuses. Active Minds supports a network of campus-based chapters across the United States and Canada that are made up of students passionate about mental health advocacy and education. Chapters provide their campuses with a wide range of programming that educates their peers about mental health, connects students to resources, and aims to change negative perceptions about mental health disorders.  Active Minds chapters are changing the way students address mental health and giving a voice to this important issue. Learn more at www.activeminds.org

Millions of children – as many as 1 in 5 – struggle with mental health or learning challenges. Fully 70% of U.S. counties do not have a single child and adolescent psychiatrist. Due to stigma, misinformation, and a lack of access to care, the average time between onset of symptoms and any treatment at all is over 8 years. Our children deserve better.

That’s why the Child Mind Institute was created. We’re dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders by giving them the help they need. We’ve become the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health by providing gold-standard evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments. For help finding resources for your child, visit: https://childmind.org/resource-finder/

Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) was founded in 1987 and now has a small national staff and 72 chapters across the country that provide support, education and encouragement to parents, educators and professionals.  The organization’s mission is to empower people affected by ADHD by providing evidence-based information; supporting individuals, their families, and professionals who assist them throughout their journeys; and advocating for equity, inclusion, and universal rights. For more information visit https://chadd.org/

The Jed Foundation is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. We’re partnering with high schools and colleges to strengthen their mental health, substance misuse, and suicide prevention programs and systems. We’re equipping teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge to help themselves and each other. We’re encouraging community awareness, understanding and action for young adult mental health. JED believes that we can promote mental health and prevent suicide among teens and young adults by empowering them as individuals, strengthening their schools, and mobilizing the communities and influences in their lives. For more information visit https://jedfoundation.org

Letters to Strangers (L2S) is the largest global youth-for-youth mental health nonprofit, seeking to destigmatize mental illness and increase access to affordable, quality treatment particularly for those of ages 13 to 24. We mobilize our mission via 1) Anonymous handwritten letter exchanges; 2) Science-driven peer education curricula, including the world’s first youth-for-youth mental health guidebook; 3) Grassroots policy-based advocacy, such as annual scholarships and the first pan-African, 24/7 toll-free mental health hotline operating from our Liberia Chapter’s base. Headquartered in California but active on six continents, Letters to Strangers directly impacts over 35,000 people a year. Our goal is to revolutionize the modern approach to mental health, focusing on a youth/peer, equity, and intersectional approach from the ground up. For more information visit http://letterstostrangers.org.

The National Federation of Families is a national family-run organization linking more than 120 state and local affiliates and national partners focused on the issues of children and youth with emotional, behavioral, or mental health needs and substance use challenges and their families.

The National Federation works to develop and implement policies, legislation, funding mechanisms, and service systems that utilize the strengths of families. Its emphasis on advocacy offers families a voice in the formation of national policy, services and supports for their children with mental health needs and substance use challenges across the lifespan. For more information, visit https://www.ffcmh.org/about.

The On Our Sleeves movement is working not only to educate families and break the stigma of children’s mental health, but also to advocate for more research into childhood mental health conditions, especially ways to implement prevention strategies early in life.

We’re sharing information about the latest behavioral health research happening at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the Abigail Wexner Research Center and Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion, as well as other important prevention and treatment findings from around the world.

Our ultimate goals are to change the mindset – and break the stigma – about childhood mental health and to increase knowledge about strategies to improve mental wellness by providing free evidence-informed information, education and activities to children and families across the country.

Our mission is to provide free mental health educational resources to every community in America to educate families and empower advocates. We also support access to services by connecting families to trusted local resources. For more information, visit: https://www.onoursleeves.org/about/research

Formerly ‘Students With Schizophrenia’, SWP empowers empowering student leaders and advocates living with psychosis worldwide by organizing events, founding clubs, offering career-building internship programs, and bringing together a global perspective of psychosis through our Advocacy Board. Together, we can change the face of psychosis. To learn more: https://sws.ngo/

If you are an advocacy organization that provides Mental Health services for Pediatric and Adolescent populations and you would like to be included on this page, please contact The STARR Coalition at action@thestarr.org.