Alliance for Children's Mental Health
The Problem
1 in 5
Children struggle with mental illness1
2 in 3
Children with a mental health disorder who do not receive care1
1.3%
Philanthropic giving put toward mental health2
Our Impact
$50M
Funding committed to youth mental health
37M+
Children and their trusted adults reached globally
85+
Nonprofits helped through our Innovation Awards initiative
Latest Insights
Read our research and discoveries in youth mental health.
Innovation Awards
Our awards program aims to seed fund and accelerate transformative mental healthcare solutions for children.
About The Alliance
Learn about our members, our advisory board and how we work together to support children’s mental health.
Saniya Soni (00:04):
When I was starting to struggle, I didn't know what it was that I was experiencing or the fact that there were other people experiencing the same thing that I was. But now that I know that there is help out there, it's just a matter of finding and accessing those resources that are gonna get me to the place that I really want to be. I started experiencing symptoms of depression when I was coming out of fifth grade. I felt isolation and sadness. I didn't really know how to cope with any of it.
Harold S. Koplewicz (00:47):
According to the Child Mind Institute's children's mental health report, 17.1 million children will have a mental health disorder before the age of 18. That means one in five children in the United States struggle with one of these disorders.
Saniya Soni (01:02):
The stigma not only from my friends, but my teachers, my parents, my community was pretty pervasive.
Mankamal Nidhi (01:14):
I, I didn't even know what depression is or what, uh, what kind of other mental illnesses are there until I started taking her to the doctor or until she started really voicing it out that, "I need help".
Harold S. Koplewicz (01:29):
So one of the things we have to do is recognize how real, common and treatable these disorders are, and secondly, we need better access to care.
Joan Steinberg (01:41):
For more than 50 years. The Morgan Stanley Foundation has focused on children's health, and there's no way that we can say that's our mission and not include children's mental health. The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health brings together nonprofit charitable experts that we can partner with to really deliver on this issue. We are really trying to take proven models and evidence-based approaches to children's mental health and bring them to scale. We have a great opportunity to be a part of helping our own communities really think about and improve on children's mental health.
Harold S. Koplewicz (02:14):
These disorders are as real as a cough, as a rash, or as serious as cancer. When they get a diagnosis and they get the right kind of treatment, they're able to have a full life.
Saniya Soni (02:29):
Ultimately, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. I was on antidepressants and I was going to therapy, and it was the first time that someone had told me that the experiences that I was going through were valid, and it really released a lot of burden from me. So now I'm studying psychology and ultimately I want to do what those therapists did for me because I know how powerful it can be to have someone on your side that is advocating for you when you're not in a place to advocate for yourself.
Giving Back
Discover how we make a difference in the communities where we live and work.
Founder and Funding Insights
Learn about trends in inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as insights on access to capital.
At Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab we aim to foster and really support our underrepresented founders.
Each founder or company is paired with an entrepreneur in residence, and the idea is for the entrepreneur in residence to really serve as a resource, a think tank and a sounding board for our founders.
The networking opportunities that Morgan Stanley provides as part of this program are immense. There's a lot of varied perspectives and expertise that we have access to.
It’s just seems as though there’s an immense opportunity for networking to help drive our business forward and learn.
My name is Heidi Kujawa and I’m the CEO and founder of ByFusion.
We’ve developed a proprietary system that enables us to convert all of the non-recyclable plastic waste into a reusable building material, which we call ByBlock.
When you take an inclusive group and put them around a problem, you are going to get innovation out of that.
Morgan Stanley estimates that roughly $4.4 trillion is lost in missed economic opportunities because of underrepresentation. It's clear that the lack of inclusion causes investors to miss significant opportunities.
The Inclusive Ventures Lab is committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable investing landscape for underrepresented founders.
I think that great founders, great ideas are everywhere, but unfortunately, opportunities are inequitable.
At the Lab, they're truly looking at the founders, they're looking at the ideas, they're looking at the great enterprises that are being created and providing opportunities where otherwise they wouldn't exist.
My name is Anuj Bhalla, and I'm the founder and CEO of serviceMob.
serviceMob is an artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics platform for the modern customer service industry.
We truly are offering a whole host of metrics and measurements that were never available in the industry before.
At the Inclusive Ventures Lab we aim to support and accelerate the growth of businesses that have been founded by diverse founders.
These founders then become the role models for upcoming entrepreneurs, and they have the social and financial capital to become changemakers.
Africa has a lot of potential in the ecosystem when it comes to entrepreneurship.
One of my strong beliefs is that entrepreneurship will also help lift people out of poverty, because of the sheer number of people that can be employed within the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
My name is Charles Ifedi and I'm the CEO of eBanqo.
We provide services to businesses across Africa. We provide services to businesses in the U.S. as well as in the Caribbean.
We continue to improve the way they engage with their customers and better serve them in meeting the needs that their customers have.
Our goal is to help every single business move into that future.
Venture capital is essential for the growth of companies. There's less than 2% of venture capital that is driven towards women and multicultural founders.
We believe that investing in underrepresented founders is a business imperative.
I couldn't have not heard about the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab.
I applied to the program at a time when I had a really exciting growth plan for Unfabled, and needed to find the right partner who would unlock some of that growth for us.
I'm Hannah Samano, the founder and CEO of Unfabled.
Unfabled is a consumer health platform that delivers curated and personalized recommendations to women, to improve their health and well-being.
The women's health industry is a really exciting place right now, and it's projected to be a one trillion dollar opportunity by 2027.
Investing in female-founded businesses makes great sense.
At Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab we aim to foster and really support our underrepresented founders.
Each founder or company is paired with an entrepreneur in residence, and the idea is for the entrepreneur in residence to really serve as a resource, a think tank and a sounding board for our founders.
The networking opportunities that Morgan Stanley provides as part of this program are immense. There's a lot of varied perspectives and expertise that we have access to.
It’s just seems as though there’s an immense opportunity for networking to help drive our business forward and learn.
My name is Heidi Kujawa and I’m the CEO and founder of ByFusion.
We’ve developed a proprietary system that enables us to convert all of the non-recyclable plastic waste into a reusable building material, which we call ByBlock.
When you take an inclusive group and put them around a problem, you are going to get innovation out of that.
1Merikangas et al (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in U.S. adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication—Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 49(10): 980-989. doi: 10.1016/j. jaac.2010.05.017 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2946114/
2Zimmerman, Ken. “Mental Health Needs to Be a Top Priority for Philanthropy. Here's Why.” Inside Philanthropy, https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2020/6/28/more-than-ever-mental-health-needs-to-a-top-priority-for-philanthropy-heres-why
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