Essex County Women's Fund Launches Girls Mental Health Initiative

DANVERS, MA — The Danvers-based Women's Fund of Essex County is launching an initiative to help address mental health and well-being struggles among young girls on the North Shore.

Five Essex County-based nonprofits were selected from a group of 25 applicants and will receive cumulative grant awards totaling $210,000 over three years.

The program is designed to improve adolescent girls' mental health in the region with funding help from the Cummings Foundation.

"Championing the essential needs of women and girls is at the center of TWF's funding," TWF co-president Trish Moore said. "It is well-documented that pandemic and post-pandemic stressors have exacerbated an existing mental health crisis in adolescents. Building wellness and resiliency among adolescent girls is key to their recovering from the effects of the pandemic and to creating a pathway to a fulfilling future."

This year's grant recipients are:

• Bellisini Academy: Resilient Girls After School Program, Lawrence
• Beyond Soccer: Partnership with The Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, Lawrence
• Girls on the Run: Heart and Sole, Essex County
• New American Association of MA: Group mentoring for adolescent refugee girls, Lynn and
Newburyport
• The NAN Project: Healthy Relationships = Healthy Minds, Essex County

"Girls' mental health and well-being have been part of an ongoing discussion between The Women's Fund and our nonprofit partners since our first pandemic roundtable held in the spring of 2021," TWF co-president Wendy Roworth. "Based on the immense need, we knew we needed to act."

TWF has partnered with Wellesley College's Youth, Media, and Wellbeing Research Lab to produce a white paper assessing the effectiveness of various programs.

"This collaborative effort, shining a light on a critical issue, will yield outcomes and learning far beyond those of individual organizations and will advance the field of knowledge addressing adolescent girls’ mental health, resilience, and well-being," Moore said.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)