Morgan Stanley Announces Children’s Mental Health Innovation Award Winners and Launches Leadership Learning Series

Morgan Stanley today announced the third cohort of winners of its Alliance for Children’s Mental Health Innovation Awards, an initiative that aims to fund and advance transformative mental healthcare solutions for children and young adults across the U.S.

From nearly 750 applications, five organizations have been chosen for their inventive and scalable solutions for improving children’s mental health. Each organization will be awarded $100,000 to expand their programming, receive training from industry professionals and build connections with other nonprofits and potential funders.

In response to the high volume of applications since the awards began in 2021, the Alliance is launching a Leadership Learning Series to support more nonprofits delivering solutions around children’s mental health, especially early-stage organizations seeking to grow their programming for greater impact. Over 200 leaders from nearly 80 nonprofits will have access to expert-led sessions and networking opportunities over eight months, covering topics such as strategic development, funding for scaling, team effectiveness and impact measurement.

“In the face of a profound mental health crisis among our nation’s young people and persistent gaps in accessible care, the need for game-changing solutions is dire,” said Joan Steinberg, President of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and CEO of the Alliance for Children’s Mental Health’s Advisory Board. “We are delighted to play a role in supporting nonprofits across the country through our Innovation Awards and our new Leadership Learning Series. These organizations are crucial to community, school and peer-based solutions, working to ensure that more young people receive the mental health support they need now.”

The 2024 Innovation Award winners and their scalable solutions include:

• Amal Alliance empowers vulnerable and displaced children through education and social development programs in both formal and informal safe learning spaces around the globe.
  • Colors of Kindness: Provides culturally responsive and inclusive social-emotional learning programming on mobile care buses for displaced kids living in remote shelters, and in low-income schools to improve children’s well-being.
• Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health aims to expand access to quality, evidence-based youth mental health care as quickly as possible.
  • First-Gen Teen Center: Empowers first-generation American teen advisors to engage in peer mentoring and trains new therapists to provide culturally informed treatment and family support.
• Give Us The Floor supports LGBTQ+ youth in distress through a peer-led community, reducing shame and stigma and fostering connection and hope.
  • Supportive Group Chats: Provides peer support to LGBTQ+ youth nationwide through online chat groups facilitated by trained youth, helping to address mental health challenges and build resiliency as they enter adulthood.
• Our Minds Matter is a teen-led movement encouraging young people to change the culture around mental health and help prevent teen suicide.
  • Community-based Peer Clubs: Extends a proven school-based club model to teen centers, creating safe spaces and providing peer-to-peer mental health support for teens in underserved communities.
• Upstream Education works with schools across the country to give teachers the training and tools they need to support the mental well-being of their students.
  • Bite-sized Tools for Student Well-being: Helps students strengthen resilience, reduce anxiety and enhance well-being through an actionable curriculum of simple strategies designed by teachers for teachers.

The winners were selected by experts from the Alliance for Children’s Mental Health, which brings together leaders from Morgan Stanley, its Foundation and distinguished nonprofits in the children's mental health space. With the addition of this cohort, the Alliance’s Innovation Awards program has awarded $1.5 million in grants to 15 organizations.