'It's really heavy work' How a shift in the traditional approach to therapy supports a group that's usually reluctant to do it

Pioneered by Be Strong Families, Parent Cafes offer safe spaces for parents and caregivers to discuss the highs and lows of raising children. The cafes offer guidance and a sense of community, as parenting can feel lonely and isolating. Parent cafes have reached thousands of people since emerging in 2007, and 96% of participants say the cafes feel like safe places where they can learn.

Lansing, Michigan built an ecosystem of community violence intervention programs (anchored by Advance Peace and the Lansing Empowerment Network) that reduced shootings by 38% between 2022 and 2025. Their relationship-based outreach, mentorship, and victim support continue to prove effective despite federal funding cuts.

A small, participant-led weekly arts and crafts group in Barrow has helped around 15 men living with mental health conditions, dementia, and autism build social connections and overcome anxiety-related challenges.

Several Louisville organizations are addressing mental health care accessibility for youth of color by offering therapy in community spaces like barbershops, libraries, and other familiar environments. This approach aims to reduce stigma and has also made mental health care more accessible by eliminating barriers such as cost and location. Many youths who had participated in the therapy programs reported feeling more open to discussing their mental health.

A violence prevention program in Baton Rouge is working to reduce gun violence and help mothers and those affected cope and move forward in a healthy way. The street team with the non-profit C.H.A.N.G.E supports grieving families, provides targeted interventions and community engagement efforts around gun violence, and collects data to measure their work’s impact over time.

The Victim of Violence Program uses hospital social workers to connect with youth in the hospital for cases of interpersonal violence by helping them cope with trauma, and any other psychosocial concerns that may arise as a result within the year that youth and their families are required to participate in the program. An individualized, holistic treatment plan is developed for each patient, whether that be helping them graduate high school, learn how to communicate better with family or manage the symptoms of their trauma. In 2021, the program had 11 patients and a 100% completion rate.

The Uvalde Together Resilience Center run by The Ecumenical Center provides mental health services to students, parents, and teachers impacted by school shootings and living with trauma. The center provides mental health resources, and professional help, as well as a sense of community for those affected to heal.

Connecticut colleges are implementing QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training to teach students how to recognize suicide warning signs, ask direct questions like "Are you thinking about suicide?" and connect peers to professional help. Since 2022, over 1,000 people have been trained through Connecticut Children's Youth Suicide Prevention Center alone, with hundreds more trained at individual campuses like Southern Connecticut State University.

Mobile crisis response teams, like CAHOOTS and the Ulster County mobile teams, deploy crisis workers and medics instead of police to situations like mental health crises and welfare checks, to avoid unnecessary escalation. Counties with mobile teams say the quality of care they receive has dramatically improved. In Ulster county alone, they receive about 4,000 diverted 911 calls annually and only five to 10% of them require police backup.

The Creative Minds club provides a creative, supportive outlet for high school students amid a rise in teen homicides due to gun violence and racial tension. Students in the club meet to discuss their feelings, grieve and participate in forms of self-expression like writing and artwork to help manage their mental health.