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In August, 38 young people came together in Cary to kick off CaroNova’s design of the North Carolina Youth Mental Health Action Plan during the health care nonprofit’s first Youth Design Day event.
The action plan, announced in May 2025, will bring together stakeholders across sectors to identify existing gaps in service for youth behavioral health and outline a set of recommendations for the state. The Youth Design Day is part of CaroNova’s effort to make sure their plan includes young people’s voices.
NC Child, El Futuro, Faster Glass, and the NC Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs partnered with CaroNova to host the event.
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According to a press release from CaroNova, students at the event identified priorities for state health care leaders and policymakers based on their own lived experiences and those of their peers.
“The youth mental health advocates and state healthcare leaders developing this action plan were adamant that it must be created with youth, not for youth,” said Julia Beck, CaroNova’s president, in the press release. “This is the beginning of a series of initiatives aimed at ensuring their voice is heard.”
CaroNova also shared a handful of early trends and priorities that the event surfaced.
First, the internet and social media have both positive and negative effects on students’ mental well-being. Youth shared they go online for “validation, distraction, belonging, and socialization,” according to the press release.
Second, students described the high pressure they feel to perform academically and their subsequent feelings of anxiety, panic, and stress.
A student named Chloe-Ann from Cary, identified in the press release only by first name, reflected on her discussions with peers.
“I think broadly the biggest concern that I have heard from my peers and from myself is that we’re afraid to discuss mental health and it is still stigmatized … There is still more that can be done and that needs to be done in order to have safe spaces like this one that was facilitated today,” she said.
Decreasing mental health stigma, like Chloe-Ann described, is one of the four potential priorities that participants came up with for the action plan. The other three priorities include:
- Targeting the root of mental health issues and addressing them from a culturally humble and socioeconomically relevant lens.
- Making it easier to access mental health care, including in schools.
- Creating relationships between peers, school staff, trusted adults, and mentors.
Of the 38 students who attended the event, 22 reside in North Carolina’s Triangle area. As the action plan continues to develop, CaroNova and its partners will host additional Youth Design Days in different regions across the state.
Those interested in learning more about Youth Design Day can contact Chip Sudderth, CaroNova’s director of strategic communications, at communications@caronova.org.
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