Youth Leadership Institute, in partnership with San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, is hoping to change the narrative around mental health by collecting stories, poetry, mini-autobiographies, interviews, and artwork centered around what it means to understand your mental health. The goal of the anthology is to highlight the mental health experiences of all people in San Mateo County, especially highlighting transition-aged youth (15 - 25), and make space for people to share their stories about mental health in order to break down stigmas around mental health and increase access to services.

Anthology submissions will help inform the direction and implementation of the Help@Hand project, which is a state-wide initiative seeking to identify online tools that can support people’s mental health, and to improve the connectivity of mental health technology to San Mateo County’s mental health services. The goal of Help@Hand is to offer apps or online tools to San Mateo County residents to improve their mental health outcomes.

We are seeking a range of submissions reflecting the diverse perspectives and personal experiences of residents in San Mateo County. These pieces will be collected in an anthology and shared in YLI’s newsletter, website, blog posts, and/or our other communications and social media channels. Authors may remain anonymous if desired.

Please share this email with your networks. Please email Rubi Salazar at rsalazar@yli.org for questions or other ways to help with this project.

Submission link: https://bit.ly/MHanthology