Teen Health | StartUp Health NOW Podcast

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This week on StartUp Health NOW, we explore youth wellbeing in the digital age with Katya Hancock, Founding Executive Director of Young Futures and a member of StartUp Health’s Health Moonshot Impact Board.

After 10 years as part of the StartUp Health executive team, Hancock brings her experience to this innovative non-profit focused on helping young people thrive online. We’ll move beyond the “screen time villain” narrative and explore real solutions for navigating the digital world’s tensions. We’ll discuss Young Futures’ first million-dollar funding challenge, tackling loneliness, social connection, and wellbeing. Inspired by the Surgeon General’s call to action, they’re empowering youth-led efforts alongside established organizations.

Focus on Youth Wellbeing: Young Futures aims to improve youth wellbeing and mental health, especially in marginalized communities. The organization seeks to shift the narrative from focusing on challenges to providing practical solutions.
Innovative Support for Nonprofits: The organization hosts funding challenges to support innovative nonprofits working to improve youth well-being. The first challenge, called The Lonely Hearts Club, focused on addressing loneliness and social connection.
Building a Collaborative Ecosystem: Like StartUp Health, Young Futures brings together grantees in an ecosystem to collaborate and support each other. This approach helps create a stronger network of organizations working towards common goals.
Real-World Applications: Examples of supported organizations include Hip Hop Into Learning, which helps kids express themselves and find community through hip hop, and Sesame 3G, which connects seniors, teens, and preschoolers for mentoring and social-emotional learning.
Challenges and Opportunities: Hancock emphasizes the importance of addressing the digital tension young people face and providing them with the tools to navigate the digital world healthily. She also discusses the need for nonprofit leaders to adopt practices from the for-profit startup world, such as long-term goal setting and effective communication with funders.
Supporting StartUp Health: Hancock expresses her commitment to ensuring young people are part of the conversation in healthcare. She appreciates StartUp Health’s model and media presence, which can help raise awareness about youth mental health and integrate it into broader health discussions.
Personal Insights and Future Goals: Hancock shares her personal journey and how her work with StartUp Health and Young Futures has influenced her views on technology and parenting. She envisions Young Futures becoming more of an entertaining media company to engage and support young people effectively.

Join us for a dive into the future of youth and technology!

If you’re interested in the latest on how to help teens thrive in the digital age, follow the Young Futures Newsletter and their LinkedIn page.

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According to some estimates, out of the HHS, nearly 50% of kids have experienced some kind of mental health challenge. And not just anxiety about an upcoming test or depression over a breakup, but persistent feelings that interfere with daily activities.

Health innovation companies have been on the case for years, including many from the StartUp Health community. They’re tackling the science – like what’s the best way to treat mental health challenges in teens – and they’re also tackling engagement. You can have the best tools in the world after all, but if a young person doesn’t want to get help, it’ll never go anywhere.

Enter Katherine Grill, PhD, CEO & Co-founder of Neolth, one of our guests on this podcast episode. She’s taken her doctorate in behavioral neuroscience and her experience as a clinician, combined with hundreds of interviews with young people, in order to build a platform that meets kids where they’re at – offering self-guided mental health support in a variety of forms and flavors.

Joining the podcast with us is former pro basketball player, Kenny Thomas. After spending 11 seasons in the NBA, Thomas became an entrepreneur and community advocate, with a focus on youth experiencing financial hardship via his own foundation. And now he’s throwing his influence behind Neolth in order to help young people, particularly those involved in sports, gain access to mental health services.

On this StartUp Health NOW episode, we’ll cover the ins and outs of the Neolth platform as well as some of Dr. Grill’s strategy behind working with a brand ambassador, which is somewhat unique in the world of early-stage health startups.

Let’s get into it.

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Tag Archives: Teen Health

Inside the Impact Board: How Katya Hancock Supports Youth Wellbeing in the Digital Age

Neolth Teams Up with NBA Star Kenny Thomas to Bring Mental Health Tools to Kids