Their experience wasn’t uncommon. One study of black students from Chicago’s South Side found that nearly half had witnessed an injury or death from gang violence. Across the U.S., one in three inner-city students suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by a variety of causes, from witnessing murder to experiencing neglect or abuse.
“We came to realize that text messaging was the delivery channel that works to reach most youth.”[Source Image: yamonstro/iStock (pattern)]A new startup is designed to help low-income high school students recover from trauma through a medium that’s more accessible than in-person counselors at underfunded schools: text messaging.“We wanted to meet kids where they are,” says Ashley Edwards, who co-founded the startup nonprofit, called MindRight, with Alina Liao. “Through interviews, we came to realize that text messaging was the delivery channel that works to reach most youth.”
Edwards, who previously worked at a school in Newark, New Jersey as a director of operations, had seen firsthand how little mental health support students often receive.
“At my school, I basically served as an impromptu social worker, because my school didn’t have the adequate resources to serve the needs of all my students,” Edwards tells Fast Company. “It was through that experience that I saw the huge gap in services in inner-city schools, and how much that impacted students’ long-term outcomes.”
“If we’re texting with a student and they’re angry that day, we can give them a practical tip on deep breathing to really sort of recognize their triggers and help them relax.” [Source Image: yamonstro/iStock (pattern)]Kids with high exposure to trauma are three times more likely to repeat a grade, she says, and also more likely to be expelled or drop out of school; 90% of youth who are currently incarcerated have been exposed to trauma.MindRight “coaches” draw from cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and other evidence-based mental health tools to text back and forth with students who need help throughout the day. Coaches are volunteers (vetted with background checks) who go through 20-plus hours of training on a framework the nonprofit developed with clinical advisors.