The Foundation for Fresno Unified Students

Empowering youth to co-create student-centered mental health solutions

Services: Research | Youth Council Development | Community Engagement Strategy

DSS partnered with The Foundation for Fresno Unified Students to engage students and the wider community in improving the mental health supports available across the school district.

THE REALITY

Youth mental health has been steadily declining. According to the CDC, suicide is now the second leading cause of death in the U.S. for those 10-14, 20% of adolescents 12-17 report symptoms of anxiety in the last two weeks, and Gen Zers experience much higher rates of loneliness than other generations.

The Foundation for Fresno Unified Students is keenly aware that the resources schools provide often don’t reflect the lived experiences of students who may have unique mental health challenges. This is especially true in Fresno, CA, the third largest school district in California with over 70,000 students, 88% of which are English language learners, foster youth or students whose families live below the federal poverty level.

The Foundation retained with DSS to assess the strengths and gaps of the youth mental health supports in the school district and put students at the center of charting the course forward.

OUR APPROACH

We conducted a listening tour of educators, mental health professionals and school administrators, followed by a review of mental health information on 95 school websites and a literature review of evidence-based school mental health services. Through this research, we defined components of a Student Mental Health Ecosystem, mapping 12 interventions against the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). This became the basis of a survey, delivered in English, Spanish, and Hmong, that was completed by over 500 students and parents.

In parallel, we convened 10 students for a Mental Health Council. By sharing our findings with them first, they validated priorities that reflected their lived experience and felt most urgent:

• access to consistent mental health information across the district

• a need for more culturally competent resources and staff training

• investment in social emotional learning at the elementary and middle school level

To spark wider dialogue, we hosted an in-person town hall attended by over 40 students, parents, educators and local leaders in which we facilitated breakouts exploring how to improve relationships, awareness, programs, and measurement needed to advance these priorities.

THE IMPACT

The impact of our student mental health assessment and development of the Council is still being felt by The Foundation and across the Fresno, CA school district. The findings report and the alignment created between youth and community stakeholders has given the Foundation tools to successfully secure two new grants supporting student mental health. Additionally, the town hall forged new pathways for collaboration between educators and administrators who were working toward common aims, but had not previously been in contact. Most importantly, Council members have been inspired to continue their role as megaphones for their peers in the pursuit of creating supportive learning environments across Fresno’s 100 school sites. They are now working through a design process focused on: telehealth services, mobile mental health services and school site resource awareness campaigns.

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“Any time we have a district of this size, creating that cohesive vision and message can be difficult. The mindset is there, but we all have different ways, leading to different outcomes. [If] we can get better in a cohesive approach to supporting students, we can support diverse communities better.”

- FUSD Social Emotional Support Manager

Interested in how to advance youth-led mental health solutions in your community?