The PA Youth Advocacy Network, a program of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, launched the 2023 Teen Mental Health Advocacy Series on February 1.The second annual series aims to connect Pennsylvania high school students with advocacy s...
Project & Program Updates
PA Youth Advocacy Network youth advocate Mohammad Shedeed is the Pennsylvania NAMI 2023 Youth Mental Health Leadership Award essay contest winner. Shedeed, a senior at South Fayette High School, wrote about the mental health stigma he ...
To kickstart the new year, youth advocates from the PA Youth Advocacy Network organized two virtual meetings with representatives to discuss bills they sponsored related to teen mental health. Youth advocates from across Pennsylvania m...
On December 8, the Teen Mental Health Collaborative held its quarterly meeting at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation as an opportunity to network, share organizational highlights from the year,hear and learn from partner organizatio...
Brooklyn Williams, a past participant in the PA Youth Advocacy Network's Teen Mental Health Advocacy Series, took to the floor of a U.S. Senate committee to advocate for increased funding to address teens' mental health needs. Read mor...
Sarah Pesi, MSPPM, a Jewish Healthcare Foundation policy associate, was chosen to participate in the 2022-2023 Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program, a policy leadership program for education, community, and advocacy leaders...
Luna Plaza, a former youth leader of the PA Youth Advocacy Network, recently received the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh's 2022 Emerging Leader Award, recognizing a young person, age 24 or younger, whose voice and actions interrupt the status...
On September 9, the Teen Mental Health Collaborative held its quarterly meeting at the Center of Life as an opportunity to network and collaborate, learn about family engagement strategies to improve teen mental health and wellness, an...
Alekhya Buragadda, a youth advocate with the Jewish Healthcare Foundations' PA Youth Advocacy Network, participated in "Supporting Schools in our Communities: A Critical Foundation to Child and Youth Mental Health," a moderated convers...
Fifty percent of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75 percent by age 24, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. At a screening of Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, a Ken Burns documentary...
The PA Youth Advocacy Network's efforts to increase awareness of teen mental health issues and inspire young people across Pennsylvania to action were highlighted at two national conferences this month. The National Alliance on Mental ...
The PA Youth Advocacy Network recognized the month of May as Mental Health Awareness Month with several youth-centered events. Since 2018, the Network, a program of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, has activated youth and adults acros...
On May 26, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) convened members of the Teen Mental Health Collaborative for the second in-person meeting of 2022. Attendees had the opportunity to share and network with Collaborative participants and...
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) Board and staff were pleased to see so many of our key focus areas mentioned in President Biden's 2022 State of the Union address. We are looking forward to many opportunities this year to advance...
On March 23, the inaugural Teen Mental Health Advocacy Series hosted by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and the PA Youth Advocacy Network held its finale session. The series connected twenty-four high-school students across Penn...
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) was pleased to host Donna Cooper, former secretary of policy for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the Ed Rendell administration, for a meeting with health system representatives and communi...
In February, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and the PA Youth Advocacy Network began the inaugural 2022 Teen Mental Health Advocacy Series. The series aims to connect Pennsylvania high school students with advocacy opportunities...
On February 22, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) convened members of the Teen Mental Health Collaborative for the first in-person meeting of the new year. Attendees had the opportunity to discuss and define the Collaborative's st...
On February 24, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) Board Committee for Adolescent Behavioral Health, led by JHF Board Vice Chair Daniel Rosen, PhD, MSW, met to begin preliminary discussions on strengthening health system and commun...
Jewish Healthcare Foundation President and CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein authored an op-ed published January 14 in the Pittsburgh Business Times highlighting the crisis facing our mental health services. Under-resourced, understaffed, ...