MKE Impact Lab Recognizes Pathways High for Solution Addressing Youth Mental Health Challenges

Pathways High is proud to announce that #MyHealthMyWay was selected from over 35 submissions as the winning design by a panel of community and mental health experts for the MKE Impact Lab, a program implemented by The Commons, an initiative of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. The judges loved our solution because it "tackled multi-dimensional wellness in a very smart, reflective, and goal-oriented way that meets young people right where they are."

The BUILD, or prototyping phase of the pilot, recently kicked-off as part of an innovation sprint led by four external BUILD team members and Pathways High Impact Year student, Avery Smith. Avery is passionate about addressing youth mental health challenges. Last year, she successfully defended an advanced mastery credit on the topic and couldn't be more thrilled to be diving deeper into solution development. "I am very excited to be a part of the BUILD team working on the Pathways High #MyHealthMyWay project during my IMPACT year! Adolescents' mental health problems are worsening, and it is imperative that we change the current education and mental health systems that reinforce the idea that students must ‘fail’ or struggle in order to receive support. My goal is to provide students with the skills to help them attain agency over their own wellbeing." Student agency over academic and socio-emotional learning has been a cornerstone of Pathways High since inception. #MyHealthMyWay is a natural extension of student agency over their own wellbeing that supports students in developing lifelong skills to become thriving adults. The Pathways High team is excited for the opportunity the MKE Impact Lab win provides to build out this flexible framework and extend its adoption to other youth across the region, state, and country. Stay tuned for more updates as the BUILD process progresses over the next four weeks. If you are interested in helping with the continued success of this project, please contact Julia Burns at jburns@pathwayshigh.org.