President Joe Biden
The day after President Biden underscored the country’s unprecedented mental health crisis during his State of the Union address, MTV Entertainment Group is solidifying plans for its inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum, in coordination with the Biden-Harris administration.
The Forum will take place in D.C. in May and will feature an initial cohort of 30 young creators and mental health activists presenting their ideas at a White House event to an audience of media and technology professionals, government officials and nonprofit executives to help inform future creative public health campaigns related to mental health.
“Young people are going through a mental health crisis. We are in a position, given our platform, to have a significant impact on the mental health journeys of millions of Americans by uplifting youth voices who can understand the unique challenges their peers face, and reach them in a way that actually meets them where they are—on digital platforms,” says Vaughan Bagley, senior manager of social impact for MTV Entertainment Group.
“The young people we hope to reach with the content coming out of this Forum are the least likely to seek help and often have the least resources available to them.”
Senior officials from the Biden-Harris administration, including from the Department of Health and Human Services, are expected to speak during the May event.
MTV Entertainment announced the first phase of its partnership with the administration last October. At the time, Chris McCarthy, president/CEO of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios, highlighted the power of authentic storytelling to help put an end to the stigma around mental health.
“As the rise of mental health issues have created a second pandemic, especially among young people, MTV Entertainment convened a coalition of entertainment leaders and mental health experts to harness the power of storytelling with the goal of ending the stigma surrounding mental health,” McCarthy said.
“In coordination with the Biden-Harris administration and an impressive coalition of leading mental health nonprofits, we are going a step further and empowering young people to use storytelling to share their powerful voices and diverse experiences to help themselves and support others.”
Prior to the May event, the creators—who were selected by the MTV Entertainment Group social impact team from hundreds of applications—will participate in a six-week program facilitated by MTVE to define a mental health problem prevalent in their communities and develop a campaign that will inspire action. Their ideas will be the basis for forthcoming PSAs, podcasts, digital art and other activations focused on improving the mental health of historically marginalized communities.
“For ideas that feel right for our digital channels and audiences, MTVE creators will work alongside them to co-produce a campaign, and we will work as matchmakers to our peers at other media and entertainment brands who will help to bring other ideas to life that are right for them,” Bagley says.
“It is our hope that the concepts that are presented at the Forum will be carried forward and developed into a tangible creative campaign that can reach millions of young people across the country.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to give a voice to young people doing the work on the ground, particularly those who have historically been marginalized,” she adds. “The young people in this cohort have been doing the hard work every day, and now this is an opportunity for MTV to take our creative superpowers and our platform and offer those assets to these young leaders who can help us shape our next big campaign in ways we might never have thought to otherwise.”
Previously announced nonprofit partners in the initiative include The AAKOMA Project, Active Minds, Asian Mental Health Collective, Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, Born This Way Foundation, Bring Change to Mind, The Jed Foundation, Mental Wealth Alliance, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, Poderistas, Rare Impact Fund by Rare Beauty, Student Veterans of America, Trans Lifeline, The Trevor Project, The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health, Vibrant Emotional Health and We R Native.
The Mental Health Youth Forum is the latest initiative from MTV Entertainment to raise awareness and action around mental health.
Last year the division of the newly renamed Paramount created the Mental Health Storytelling Coalition comprising leading forces in entertainment industry including Disney and WarnerMedia, and mental health experts. The Coalition unveiled a first-of-its-kind Mental Health Media Guide, which provides best practices and evidence-based recommendations to support content creators across topics and genres.
MTV Entertainment last May also launched Mental Health Action Day, which brought together more than 1,400 companies, nonprofits and government agencies to flip the script from awareness to action. More than $300,000 was raised for Mental Health Action Day charities on MTVE’s platform, and 287 fundraising campaigns were created for Mental Health Action Day charities.
“Hundreds of elected officials, professional athletes, artists and public figures including President Biden, Chelsea Clinton, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Lin, Jewel, Mike the Situation, and Robin Roberts amplified the message, motivating millions to take the action they need to support their own mental health, or that of someone they know in need,” Bagley says.
‘We were overwhelmed by the support the day received, which is why we are bringing it back again on May 19, 2022 and engaging more companies and more audiences to drive change.”
