On the youth mental health crisis and why creating spaces for young people to share their voices and lead change matters.
Every educator, parent, and pediatrician in America knows something is wrong. Rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness among young people have climbed steadily for more than a decade. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of adolescents ages 12 to 17 who experienced a major depressive episode nearly doubled, rising from 8 percent to nearly 16 percent.¹ The U.S. Surgeon General declared youth mental health an urgent public health crisis, noting that one in three high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness² and that schools across the country are working hard to meet the growing needs of their students.
Yet amid the concern and conversation about what is happening to this generation, we often overlook something equally important. A powerful contributor to young people’s wellbeing is the opportunity to feel heard, valued, and capable of making a difference. Across the country, young people are speaking up, stepping forward, and working to improve their communities. It is happening in schools, neighborhoods, and communities nationwide. When young people have spaces to share their perspectives and take meaningful action on issues they care about, they experience a stronger sense of purpose, belonging, and connection—protective factors that are essential to mental health. The question is not whether young people have the ability to make positive change. The question is whether we are creating the spaces where their voices can be heard and their ideas can take shape.
At the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), we believe that one of the most powerful responses to the youth mental health crisis is to invite young people into meaningful roles as leaders and problem solvers. Research backs this up. A 2024 scoping review published in the journal Children found that civic engagement programs improve youth mental health outcomes, including reduced anxiety, reduced sadness, and increased resilience, while also fostering empowerment, a sense of belonging, and stronger social connections. When young people are given opportunities to share their perspectives, collaborate with others, and act on issues they care about, they gain more than skills. They gain a sense of purpose, belonging, and confidence that their voices matter.
“I want to help my community, but I don’t always know where to start or who will actually support me.” — Young person, NYLC student survey
Service-learning creates these opportunities. It connects classroom learning with real community challenges and invites students to participate in shaping solutions. In these experiences, young people identify issues that affect their communities, listen to the perspectives of others, and work together to design responses that create positive change. In the process, they develop the confidence and civic skills that come from knowing they can contribute to something larger than themselves.
Equally important, service-learning creates spaces where young people can express their ideas and experiences. Too often, conversations about youth are led entirely by adults. Service-learning shifts that dynamic by recognizing young people as partners. When students investigate issues, present their ideas to community leaders, and collaborate with local organizations, they learn that their voices have value and influence.
This sense of belonging and contribution matters enormously in an era of rising screen time and digital isolation. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on social media found that young people who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms⁴ and that eighth and tenth graders now average 3.5 hours per day on social media platforms. Service-learning offers a direct counterweight: it pulls young people out of passive scrolling and into active, face-to-face community engagement. The belonging they build through shared purpose, alongside peers and community partners, is the kind of connection that screens cannot replicate.
We also cannot talk honestly about youth mental health without talking about inequity. Research from CIRCLE at Tufts University found that rural youth, youth with lower household incomes, and youth with lower levels of education have disproportionately less access to community assets and civic connections — the very resources that support both mental health and civic agency. For many young people, the anxiety and hopelessness they carry is not a chemical imbalance. It is a rational response to structural barriers: communities without playspaces, schools without safe spaces, and systems that have historically excluded their voices from the decisions that shape their lives. Service-learning does not pretend those barriers away. It invites young people to name them and work collectively to change them.
“I’d be more likely to join if I knew I wouldn’t be judged and my voice would matter.” — Young person, NYLC student survey
The young people featured on NYLC’s The Power of Young People podcast illustrate what becomes possible when those spaces exist. Mila Henry, an eighth grader, created MH Boxes after recognizing that young Black girls in her community lacked access to mental health support and affirmation. What began as a personal response to a gap she observed became a community initiative that now provides mental health care packages to young people who need them. On the podcast, Mila described her motivation simply: she saw a need, and she decided she was the one to meet it.
Nora Sun, then a sophomore at Harvard, was driven by a similar recognition. Growing up navigating two languages, she understood firsthand how language barriers prevent people from accessing mental health resources. She built mercuri.world to break down those barriers and make support more accessible across linguistic communities. In her conversation on The Power of Young People, Nora described the experience of seeing a gap in her community and deciding to build a bridge rather than wait for someone else to do it.
Their stories are not unusual. Across the country, young people are identifying challenges and working together to address them when given the opportunity to do so. Programs like NYLC’s Youth as Solutions initiative help create these opportunities by supporting teams of students and adult mentors who work together to address real issues in their own communities. One team of students used the program to take on safe driving and distracted driving in their community, partnering with local stakeholders and using peer-led campaigns to raise awareness among other teens because they understood that messages from peers land differently than messages from adults. Students investigate problems, listen to different perspectives, and implement solutions that reflect the genuine needs of their communities.
When young people are invited into this process, something important happens. They begin to see themselves not as bystanders to the decisions of others, but as individuals who can contribute to shaping their communities. A study published in the Journal of Youth Studies found that young people of color who participated in community-based organizing reported a shift from inner shame to hopefulness and self-efficacy as they worked alongside peers with shared lived experiences. That shift builds confidence, responsibility, and most importantly, hope.
The youth mental health crisis will not be solved by a single program or policy. However, we can take meaningful steps by creating more spaces where young people can share their voices, collaborate with others, and lead positive change. A 2023 survey by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars found that young adults who are civically engaged are more likely to feel satisfied and purposeful, and that satisfaction grows as their engagement deepens. When we trust young people with meaningful opportunities to participate and lead, we strengthen their sense of belonging and their belief that their voices and actions matter.
That is the work we are committed to at NYLC. Across the country, young people are already demonstrating what becomes possible when their voices are heard and their leadership is supported. When we create spaces for young people to lead, they do not simply imagine a better future. They begin building it.