News Posts List

The 2020 pandemic was a mental health challenge for the world which will continue in 2021. For young people, this is especially true. A recent survey of 3,300 young people aged 13-19 conducted by the America's Promise Alliance found that more than "1 in 4 young people reported an increase in losing sleep because of worry, feeling unhappy or depressed, feeling constantly under strain, or experiencing a loss of confidence in themselves." With these statistics in mind, Recovery International (RI) launched Power Your Mind: Tools to Build Resilience in November. This new self-help workbook is geared to middle school through college age students and is an introduction to the RI Method and cognitive behavioral tools. Through graphic novel panels, it illustrates stressful situations and healthy ways of coping by applying RI concepts. According to the World Health Organization, “The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.”

The workbook is designed to function as an independent, self-help tool or as part of a group workshop. An accompanying leader guide was also developed and in February and March of 2021, train-the-trainer workshops were conducted with 15 current RI members who were interested in learning how to confidently and consistently deliver the program to youth groups, after school clubs, or faith-based groups over a seven-week period. One of our first trainers to utilize the program was Emily Bouch, an RI group leader and high school teacher in Pittsburg, PA. Emily delivered the Power Your Mind workshop to a group of high school students in an afterschool program. Emily shared her post-workshop thoughts with us. “Our two guidance counselors and an interested teacher came to our sessions. They all were very impressed with the program and thought that it would work very well in our freshmen life skills class. Our hope is to get the freshmen teachers involved in learning the program so that we all can use a common language and set of tools with the kids when they are stressed or having symptoms.”

The program is gaining traction with a national reach! Interviews were conducted with the International Bipolar Foundation, Brain XP, and WBEZ – Chicago Public Radio. In March, a session on Power Your Mind was presented at SHARE! in Los Angeles as part of the Western Recovery Conference. In addition, we will be part of a panel on using comics for teen programs at the National Council for Behavioral Health annual conference. During May 2021—Mental Health Month—we will be a part of “The Shift” virtual youth wellness rallies held in LA and Chicago, a very important dialogue about youth mental health and its impact on our communities. We also look to our RI members to bring us opportunities to connect with other organizations or youth groups. If your church or synagogue has a youth group, and their leaders are interested in learning more about this program, please contact Angela at info@poweryourmind.org.   Visit https://poweryourmind.org/ for more information or to download free mini-zines with cartoons and tools to share with the teens in your life.