“Hidden Healing” for Young People’s Mental Health
Summary
In 2024, MTV Entertainment, Pinterest, and Lululemon, together with Hidden Healing Justice and partners committed to launching The Hidden Healing Fund. By harnessing the collective resources of leading brands, the Hidden Healing Fund seeks to infuse capital into existing community-based practices rooted in culture and connection that have demonstrated profound efficacy in supporting young people’s mental health, particularly in underserved communities. Hidden Healing refers to existing practices rooted in community, culture, and connection that are moving the needle in supporting mental health for young people. Hidden healing can look like art, music and dance, movement, meditation, nature, cooking, journaling, cultural gatherings, everyday connections, and more. In its inaugural year, 2024, the Hidden Healing Fund will pilot an initial collective investment of $1 million towards approximately 10 community organizations employing culturally-led approaches to address mental health, directly reaching 50,000 with the potential to impact 3.5 million young people through outreach and engagement.
Approach
Pinterest, lululemon, and MTV Entertainment, together with Hidden Healers and partners commit to launching The Hidden Healing Fund. This Fund aims to provide capital and leverage the collective resources of brands to support young people around the world in discovering and tapping into their own healing potential and culturally relevant resources to improve their mental health. This commitment to launch the Hidden Healing Fund seeks to address a key challenge related to health equity–specifically mental health equity for young people.
Hidden Healing refers to existing practices rooted in community, culture, and connection that are moving the needle in supporting mental health for young people. Hidden healing can look like art, music and dance, movement, meditation, nature, cooking, journaling, cultural gatherings, everyday connections, and more.
By harnessing the collective resources of leading brands, the Hidden Healing Fund seeks to infuse capital into existing community-based practices rooted in culture and connection that have demonstrated profound efficacy in supporting young people’s mental health, particularly in underserved communities. In its inaugural year, 2024, the Hidden Healing Fund will pilot an initial collective investment of $1 million towards approximately 10 community organizations employing culturally-led approaches to address mental health challenges for young people.
Because the process and approach is just as important as the outcome, a comprehensive landscape analysis, along with stakeholder interviews and focus groups with field experts and community leaders, was conducted to ensure that the development of this fund truly reflected the voices of those it aims to serve. This discovery phase highlighted a significant challenge in the mental health equity space and underscored the potential for a collective fund to bring the “invisible” into visibility, thereby enabling all young people to benefit from culturally-grounded approaches to mental health. The Hidden Healing Fund operates on a shared leadership model, guided by an Advisory Committee that includes funders, field experts, and youth community leaders. This structure ensures the fund remains community-centered through a participatory grantmaking process with decision-makers who represent the very communities the Fund is designed to serve.
Action Plan
2024 to 2025:
Q3 2024:
Institute collective fund model through a donor-advised fund
Establish Advisory Committee comprised of funders, field experts, and community leaders
Design grantmaking framework including nomination and selection process
Develop brand identity and website with design firm
Create Marketing Plan detailing content and channel strategy, tactics and key milestones
Build Communications Toolkit with talking points and presentation slides for external messaging
Form Revenue Strategy to include tiered membership models of giving
Officially launch the Hidden Healing Fund at CGI announcing all new partners
Nominate and review nonprofit nominations per grantmaking process
Q4 2024:
Brand partnership opportunity on October 10, 2024 for World Mental Health Day
Finalize and announce initial cohort of grantees
Disburse grants as unrestricted catalytic investments to create capacity for emerging-stage organizations in the US and UK to innovate and scale their work and impact
Q1 2025:
Co-create what success looks like for the initial cohort of grantees alongside the diverse voices of the Advisory Committee as well as field and evaluation experts
Engage with the cohort in peer-to-peer learning on a quarterly basis
Q2 2025:
Document learnings from the pilot year
Launch additional brand activation events
Continue bringing in capital to the fund to build a sustainable and impactful collective fund model for years to come
Q3 2025 – Q4 2025:
Continue engaging in peer-to-peer learning on a quarterly basis with grantees from the pilot year
Plan and execute on Year 2 of the Hidden Healing Fund based on an iterative, continuous learning posture and process
Background
The AAKOMA Project’s 2023 State of Mental Health for Youth of Color Report found that while over half of youth and young adults reported experiencing moderate to severe depression and/or anxiety, 30% who reported needing treatment did not receive it. Moreover, the severe lack of BIPOC mental health professionals—only 10.4% of practicing psychiatrists are Black, Latino or Native American — exacerbates these disparities (AAKOMA, 2023) .
Many young people face challenges in accessing traditional mental health services, from long wait times to financial barriers. There is an opportunity to elevate diverse community-led solutions to address a critical need. Culturally-led and grounded healing and healers are often under-resourced and not acknowledged for the critical impact they have in historically marginalized communities.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
There is an opportunity for additional partners to contribute capital, nominate grantees, and raise awareness for the Hidden Healing Fund. Three additional corporate partners are expected to be announced during the official launch at CGI, aimed at generating further interest from other potential supporters on the ground., The Hidden Healing Fund is not only mobilizing capital, but also collectively partnering to provide community expertise, field experts, media activations, as well as impact evaluation expertise.