The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health Continues to Build Momentum with Nine New Grants for Much Needed Mental Health Care and Services

New grant awards reflect The Upswing Fund’s commitment to provide critical resources to front-line organizations serving adolescents of color and LGBTQ+ youth

SEATTLE, February 24, 2022 – Today, The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health, powered by Panorama Global, expands its support to organizations providing critical adolescent mental health care services by awarding $652,500 in second-year funding to nine grant recipients.

Building on The Upswing Fund’s first year of impact, the grants were awarded to address rising concerns of the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on adolescent mental health and well-being—specifically among those of color and LGBTQ+ youth. The second year of funding is made possible through new donor commitments from LINUS, Pinterest, Schultz Family Foundation, and other donors.

Upswing’s 2021 Impact Summary provides an overview of the $11.18 million in grants they awarded to 92 organizations across 33 states and Washington D.C. last year. Thanks to this funding, 1,870,957 adolescents received mental health and well-being care and 63 organizations hired staff that are reflective of the youth they serve. Through the newly awarded grants, The Upswing Fund is providing critical resources to organizations serving the most vulnerable populations and will continue to look for opportunities to support a more integrated and higher quality adolescent mental health system.

In response to the alarm sounded by the declaration of a national emergency in October 2021 and December’s Public Advisory released by the U.S. Surgeon General, it’s clear that the long-standing crisis in youth mental health has been further exacerbated by COVID-19 and the recent grant awards were distributed to help address this critical situation facing our youth. More help is needed to support the mental health and well-being of vulnerable populations at the community-level and The Upswing Fund is committed to continuing to provide resources to community-based organizations across the country.

“Organizations like Black Girls Smile, We are Family, Girls Right Now, Indiana Youth Group, and Lead4Life are providing mental health and well-being programs at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the already-critical needs among adolescents who are of color and/or LGBTQ+,” said Gabrielle Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of Panorama Global.

As highlighted in The Upswing Fund’s February 2022 report “Addressing the Adolescent Mental Health Emergency: Community-Based Recommendations for Key Stakeholder Groups,” unrestricted funding is a top need for community-based organizations who are struggling to piece together the financial resources to sustain immediate, accessible, and culturally responsive adolescent mental health care services.

Gabrielle continued, “The support of our donors is paramount, and we are grateful to them for their generosity which allows us to partner with inspirational organizations doing important work—directly improving the lives of our most vulnerable youth. These funds have provided the grant recipients with critical financial support to build on momentum from 2021 and provide support and resources to even more community members looking for immediate care and services.”

Organizations that received second year funding from The Upswing Fund:

Black Girls Smile (Atlanta, GA)
Black Girls Smile provides mental health literacy education and resources for young black women to lead mentally healthy lives.

Centro Sávila (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Centro Sávila provides bilingual mental health services to increase the behavioral health stability and repair attachments between adolescents and their caretakers.

Girls Write Now (New York, NY)
Through wellness writing-based programming and wraparound wellness services, Girls Write Now serves a culturally and educationally diverse community of girls and gender-expansive youth (mentees) who have long been systematically deprived of resources and opportunities in public schools and face significant challenges to educational and professional success.

Indiana Youth Group (Indianapolis, IN)
Indiana Youth Group serves young people ages 12-24 who self-identify as LGBTQ+, as well as their allies, through a series of life-changing and life-saving wraparound services, programs, and resources including basic needs, housing, mental health care, independent living support, and more.

Lead4Life Inc. (Rockville, MD)
Lead4Life provides strengths-based personal development programming and mental health services for underserved and system involved youth and young adults across Maryland.

TransFamily Support Services (San Diego, CA)
TransFamily Support Services empowers transgender and gender non-binary youth and their families through family engagement services, support groups, training, and education.

We Are Family (North Charleston, SC)
We Are Family is a Southern grassroots non-profit organization that provides affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and no-cost mental health counseling, direct support, leadership development, and community engagement.

Young Women Empowered (Seattle, WA)
Young Women Empowered cultivates the power of diverse young women to be creative and courageous changemakers through transformative programs within a collaborative community of belonging.

Zebra Coalition (Orlando, FL)
Zebra Coalition provides culturally responsive mental health counseling, basic needs, and transitional housing for LGBTQ+ youth. The Coalition assists young people facing homelessness, bullying, isolation from their families, and physical, sexual and drug abuse with individualized programs to guide their recovery and stability.

As a collaborative fund, The Upswing Fund pools philanthropic support from diverse donors to provide critical resources to community-based organizations that provide services young people rely on. These grants are supported by generous philanthropic investments. To learn more about The Upswing Fund or how to become a collaborative funder, visit www.theupswingfund.org.

About The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health

The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health is a collaborative fund seeded by Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda French Gates to advance social progress in the United States. Further support is provided by The Klarman Family Foundation and other generous donors. The Fund is powered by Panorama Global and advised by a renowned set of mental health experts with deep clinical and research expertise and a passion to support youth and communities.

For more information, visit www.theupswingfund.org and @theupswingfund on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Panorama Global

Panorama Global is the leading platform for social change dedicated to solving some of the world’s toughest problems affecting people and the planet.

For more information, visit www.panoramaglobal.org and @PanoramaTeam on Twitter and @PanoramaGlobal on LinkedIn.

About LINUS

LINUS is a strategy and innovation consultancy focused on helping the world's leading organizations grow and thrive in the evolving health landscape. Using the power of insight, strategy and understanding human behavior, LINUS helps leaders in the life sciences, health and wellness industries make transformative decisions.

For more information, visit www.thelinusgroup.com and @LINUS on Twitter and @TheLinusGroup on LinkedIn.

About Pinterest

Pinterest is the visual inspiration platform people around the world use to shop products personalized to their taste, find ideas to do offline and discover the most inspiring creators. People have saved more than 300 billion Pins across a range of interests from building a home office to cooking a new recipe and planning a vacation. Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest launched in 2010 and has more than 400 million monthly active users worldwide.

For more information, visit https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/social-impact and @Pinterest on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

About the Schultz Family Foundation

The Schultz Family Foundation, established in 1996 by Sheri and Howard Schultz, former CEO and chairman emeritus of Starbucks, creates pathways of opportunity for populations facing barriers to success, focusing on youth transitioning to adulthood and marginalized populations, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color communities. By investing in scalable solutions and partnerships in communities across the country, the Foundation aims to help tackle the barriers and roadblocks that prevent individuals from reaching their full potential and, in doing so, strengthen our communities and our nation.

For more information, visit www.schultzfamilyfoundation.org and @SchultzFamilyFd on Twitter and @SchultzFamilyFoundation on LinkedIn.

Media Contact
LaShondà Steward
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