Approach
citiesRISE exists to tackle the urgent need to improve mental health through collective action in major cities that will catalyze systemic change across sectors.
Our Approach Local Collective Action, Young People and Youth Leadership, and Innovation and Acceleration
We have built three core initiatives to help cities and surrounding communities significantly improve the mental health of the maximum amount of people in the least amount of time:
Local Collective Action: An innovative and structured approach to cross-sector collaboration that brings creative and collaborative local leaders together under a common operating plan and goal framework to reach as many people as possible. As concentrated nodes, cities offer opportunities to efficiently use resources in a way that is not possible in locations with more dispersed populations. Our methodology involves gathering and convening key stakeholders, crafting situation analyses, supporting demonstration projects, developing theories of change, delivering programs, and aggregating feedback that contributes to a learning collaborative.
Young People and Youth Leadership: By focusing on young people and youth leadership, we are creating awareness of mental health from an earlier stage, mobilizing youth to be leaders in the field, addressing large-scale stigma, and preventing mental health challenges before they become chronic or disabling. To engage with young people and youth leaders in settings they choose, youthRISE will operate in educational settings such as schools, through leisure activities such as sports and arts, and through technology-based channels. Young mental health activists themselves, often with a lived experience of mental health disorders, have a critical leading role to play.
Innovation and Acceleration: We are supporting social entrepreneurs to take their models to scale with path-to-market strategies, development of business models, and integration with systems operating at scale for long-term sustainability. When access to knowledge is limited, progress is too. Proven models that holistically address mental health do exist, but effective scaling up is almost non-existent, with good practice examples invariably remaining isolated
Learning
Collaborative
Learning from experience and applying evidence of what works to improve mental health is a key element of citiesRISE.
The Learning Collaborative will act as the unification point of citiesRISE activities, while driving progress across three key areas: research and evidence, shared learning and indicators, and advocacy and mobilization. Find Out More