Ask Me What's Up, A Student Mental Health Initiative

With project leadership from Foundation For the Carolinas, MHA was proud to work on this project with partners: Vernisha Crawford/BYE LLC, Justin Perry Counseling, Roger Suclupe, and Teen Health Connection - who prepared the Executive Summary report below.

Ask Me What’s Up was designed as the first phase of a community initiative aimed at shining a light on this growing mental health epidemic facing too many students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. During the fall and early winter of 2019, a team of trained facilitators led over 40 conversations with 600+ students, parents, teachers and counselors in nine public and private schools to gain their perspectives on stress, anxiety and other mental health issues students are experiencing. These conversations also helped uncover how students, parents and teachers are coping with these challenges and identify steps participants suggest could be taken to improve student wellbeing. Focus groups with teens were also held in early summer 2020 to hear how COVID-19 has compounded issues around student wellbeing. This report summarizes the findings of these conversations across all nine schools and will be used to help frame the next phase of the work.