ADOLESCENT WELLNESS
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Peer Leadership & Depression Prevention
Training teens to co-facilitate mental health and wellness curricula significantly improves outcomes of Knowledge, Attitude, and Confidence in Help-seeking. AWI collaborates with Boston Children's Hospital and Rotary International delivering this program anywhere.
virtual Wellness Center
AWI piloted activities for children 10 and older to enhance resilience. They are hosted within the Numedeon collaborative game site and have been exercised by 18,000 children.
Where we work
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of students measurably improving pre- to post test Knowledge, Attitude, and Confidence in Help-Seeking.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Peer Leadership & Depression Prevention
Context Notes
The same questions are answered before and after the intervention provided by Boston Children's Hospital in the form of a curriculum, BREAK FREE FROM DEPRESSION.
Number of middle school students improving health-related attitudes and behaviors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
virtual Wellness Center
Context Notes
Activities for supplemental coping skills development (detailed in Chapter 4 of the curriculum BREAK FREE FROM DEPRESSION) are provided in formats suitable for ages 10 and older.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Adolescent Wellness, Inc. (AWI) acts to simplify the prevention of mental illness and its most tragic symptom, suicide. AWI promotes activities for all children to practice balancing the weight of life’s worries with the relief of skills and knowledge. These problem solving skills and social supports strengthen their ability to overcome challenges and crises. AWI's five year goal is to help 100,000 youth measurably improve their coping skills and knowledge.
The design of our self-tutorials and other resilience activities is informed by best practices; achieving our goal is estimated to prevent depression from occurring in over 4.500 individuals. (“The number needed to treat to prevent one case of depressive disorder was 22.” ~Am J Psychiatry 2008; 165:1272–1280). The activities optimize the interaction of our thoughts and behaviors, cognitive-behaviorism, and are developed by McLean Hospital, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, and Boston Children’s Hospital.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The problems of mental illness are widespread - about a quarter of us will experience symptoms of mental illness, ranging from depression or anxiety to schizophrenia. Early treatment is important for optimizing outcomes and prevention of some cases is possible for the most common mental illness - depression. Lifetime prevalence rates for depression are at least 9.3% (Wittchen et al. 1998) and may be as high as 24.0% (Lewinsohn et al., 1993) of the US population.
The median age for depression symptom onset is 15 so prevention activities must be practiced by younger ages. We know that educating 22 healthy youth with coping skills and knowledge prevents one case of depression. The AWI strategy is to help keep young kids healthy. Since 2006, AWI has collaborated with health care providers, educators, clergy, parents and directly with youth. We have assisted with curricula development, activity development and piloting programs.
We have no need to 'reinvent the wheel' because we are within an hour of leading researchers, providers and educators. We collaborate with McLean Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, and South Shore Hospital. What is known is what is effective for preventing depression; what is unknown is how to promote these activities with a large number of children. For example, engaging and easy to implement wellness curricula have been adopted by schools slowly, implemented by less than 1% of schools after three years. AWI will continue to facilitate school implementation but our priority is to provide children direct access to activities developing wellness skills and knowledge.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
AWI has unusual capacity for assisting with pilot projects and its connections facilitate collaboration among organizations. AWI is a volunteer organization; key resources are contracted as needed. Pilot projects often need speed and flexibility more than large dollar amounts, perhaps as simple as renting space for a focus group or to hire consultants in creative problem solving. AWI has facilitated parent and clergy workshops, sponsored Train The Trainer workshops for educators, and assisted in piloting curricula with McLean Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, South Shore Hospital and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Most recently, AWI facilitated the design and funding of a virtual Wellness Center suitable for ages 8 and older to access directly, 24/7
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In the month just completed, the virtual Wellness Center has been accessed by 868 unique individuals to use self-tutorials, access tip sheets and participate in on-line discussion forums.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
ADOLESCENT WELLNESS
Board of directorsas of 06/18/2019
Mr Chip Douglas
No affiliation
Term: 2003 - 2018
Robert Anthony
Penny Wells
Phyllis Schnitman