Our Minds Matter

Our Minds Matter (OMM) is a student-led movement designed to change the school culture around mental health. Our innovative and grassroots programming engages teens directly in taking action to prevent teen suicide. OMM clubs, led by students and overseen by staff sponsors at each school site, teach adolescents how to cope with distress, where to seek out appropriate mental health resources, while providing opportunities for meaningful connection among students, all of which are upstream, evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention.

Since the launch of the OMM program in 2016, we have grown to be the leading provider of adolescent peer-to-peer mental health programming in the DMV. Expanding rapidly, OMM has grown its club count from 16 schools in June 2018 to over 150 schools nationwide as of May 2023. Today, we are in the process of developing a pilot after-school, community-based program that will reach a wider group of young people via community and teen centers in Fairfax County, VA.

OMM affirms the inherent dignity of each employee and person we work with while dismantling any inequities within our organization’s policies, programs, and services, creating an inclusive environment where all can flourish and become one’s best self. We are building a community whose members have diverse cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences. Vital to this is leadership and staff who are representative of the communities we serve, providing culturally competent and accessible curriculum and resources, and constantly learning from and adapting to the communities we work with.