Our Focus

The Institute's current focus is a Mental Health Wellness Campaign centered on Black and Brown young adults ages 18 to 25. The work is intentionally phased, starting with community health forums designed to listen and learn before anything else is built. What we hear shapes the storytelling, digital tools, partnerships, and programming that follow.

Working with Communities

Community
Health Forums

AAWI is planning to launch a series of community mental health forums in Boston and Brockton.

These forums will bring together young adults ages 18 to 25, caregivers, and community leaders for honest dialogue about mental health wellness, identity, stigma, and access to care.

The forums are designed to normalize conversations about mental health, elevate the voices of young adults, and feature relatable role models with lived experience. They are prevention-focused spaces, not clinical services or crisis response.

The goal is to build awareness, connection, and community capacity before crisis occurs. AAWI is working in partnership with Good Shepherd Community Care, Boys and Girls Clubs, and other local organizations to host and support these forums. Learnings from each forum will be shared with community partners to strengthen collective impact and inform what comes next.

Storytelling
and Digital Innovation

Built on what we hear.

Insights from the community forums will directly inform a broader Mental Health Wellness Campaign, including storytelling, videos, and a youth-centered mental health app. This work follows the forums. It does not precede them. AAWI is exploring responsible, culturally grounded ways to use storytelling and digital platforms to expand mental health awareness, increase access to information, and elevate trusted voices from within these communities. The communities we serve will shape what gets built. Innovative technology, including the mental health app, will be developed only after the listening and learning is done.

Partnerships + Collaborations

Stronger Together.

AAWI collaborates with community organizations, health systems, educators, and influencers to expand reach, strengthen community connection, and build a coordinated response to mental health needs. These partnerships are central to how the forums get designed, how participants are reached, and how what we learn gets translated into broader community impact. We work within a wide network of trusted partners and advisors to move ideas into action, including global media collaborators and teams exploring new digital tools. Together, we are building a community-informed effort focused on improving mental health support for those too often left out.

Strategic Advisory Committee

The Strategic Advisory Committee is made up of clinicians, mental health practitioners, and community leaders with strong ties to Black and Brown communities. Members bring clinical mental health expertise alongside experience in program design, community outreach, and culturally grounded practice. While this initiative is not clinical in nature, having advisors who understand both the clinical landscape and how effective community programs are built ensures that the forums are grounded in what actually works. They are helping to shape forum focus and messaging, identify trusted voices and partners, set reasonable standards for measuring what the forums accomplish, and advise on how insights from those forums get translated into broader community impact. They serve in an advisory role, not an operational one.

J. Jacques Carter, MD, MPH, FACP

Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Committee Co-Chair, AAWI Vice-Chair

Nilanjana (Buju) Dasgupta, Ph.D.

Provost Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Director, Institute of Diversity Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Cristian Gaines

Harvard College Alumnus
SAC Youth Representative

Molly Herlihy, MBA

Vice President of Operations, Impact & Strategy
Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston

Christopher P. Landrigan, MD, MPH

Chief, Division of General Pediatrics,
Boston Children’s Hospital
Director, Sleep and Patient Safety Program,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
William Berenberg Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Donna M. Norris, MD

Psychiatrist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
President Elect, American College of Psychiatrists

Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, PhD

Founding Director, College Mental Health Program
Vice Chair, Engagement & Enrichment,
McLean Hospital
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Alicia J. Whittington, PhD, MPH, MS

Director of Engagement and
Health Equity Research
The Football Players Health Study
at Harvard University
Committee Co-Chair, AAWI Board Member

Jennifer Wiles, LMHC, BC-DMT, FT

Executive Director, HEARTplay at
Good Shepherd Community Care
Adjunct Faculty, Lesley University Graduate School
of Mental Health and Well-Being
Director and Secretary, National Alliance for Children's Grief Board

How We Do It

Listen And Learn

Grounded in community voice.

We are working to convene trusted spaces where community insights and lived experience help shape our mental health initiative’s direction.

Measure and Evaluate

Building understanding

We aim to identify patterns, barriers, and opportunities that will inform strategy and strengthen collaboration across the mental health landscape.

Innovate and Disseminate

Looking ahead

We are exploring ways to share insight, support partnerships, and advance new approaches shaped by community voice.