Audio Stories – Youth Taking Action Podcast – has launched their third episode of season two!
Audio Stories – Youth Taking Action – is a miniseries sponsored by the National Training and Technical Assistance Center and Youth MOVE National. Audio Stories is a project created to look at the important work that youth and young adults across the nation are doing in areas of mental health and other youth-serving systems to highlight the achievements surrounding topics that advocate for change in the nation!
In this episode, we spoke with Jeremiah Aja, Maya Gomez, and Crystal Widado who are part of Mind Out Loud, the official student movement of the national nonprofit Wellness Together School Mental Health. Mind Out Loud (MOL) is a mental health advocacy program & free virtual event for students across the U.S. and beyond.
Jeremiah Aja is the Assistant Director for the national nonprofit organization, Wellness Together School Mental Health, the Blue Shield of California BlueSky Liaison, and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. He has worked with youth and families since 2001 and now helps to lead a team of therapists across the country partnering with school districts and universities to deliver mental health services on school campuses or online. Jeremiah is a member of the California Department of Education State Suicide Postvention Response Team and the California Department of Education Mental Health Collaborative. He holds a Bachelor’s in Leadership from William Jessup University, a Master’s Degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Brandman University.
Crystal Widado (she/her/hers) is a student journalist, public speaker, and high school junior. After dealing with many personal struggles with suicide and identity in middle school, she became extremely passionate about teen mental health and intersectional approaches to our generation’s conversations surrounding wellness. Crystal has served as the social media facilitator for Mind Out Loud for the past two years, helping create graphics to promote events and speak at multiple webinars to represent the organization. Outside of Mind Out Loud, Crystal also serves as the co-president of her schools’ NAMI on Campus chapter, the Writing Director of Each Mind, and is a part of the Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup at the California Department of Education.
Maya Gomez (she/her/hers) is a high school sophomore at Whitney High School. She is a second year Mind Out Loud student rep and became involved with the program, as well as mental health advocacy in general, after learning about Wellness Together. After experience with different branches of advocacy and exposure to a variety of perspectives by her peers, Maya has focused her work on the converging pathways of neuroscience, language, and personal experiences. Currently, she is the facilitator for the podcast committee, and uses her platform and resources through the program to produce content that can serve as a microcosm for the personal conversations within the program. She applies her experience with mental health advocacy to all aspects of her life, including the implementation of social-emotional programming in her self-run summer camp.
These Mind Out Loud representatives are here today to talk about the student mental health movement and the topic of Youth-Driven Mental Health Advocacy & Engagement in Schools
Check Out the Podcast Here>> or listen below
