Navi: Instant Wellness Support for Youth

Health care access

City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

80% of youth with mental health needs never access treatment (MHA). Reasons include severe shortages of providers to meet the demand, a lack of resources at precise moments of need, and/or preferences for self-guided mental health supports to deal with problems on their own.
The Navi app offers 24/7, self-guided and evidence-based mental health support for students. Most mental wellness apps require continuous engagement to see benefits. In contrast, Navi leverages principles of Single Session Interventions; each Navi 10 minute activity is intentionally designed so that each and every encounter is clinically meaningful. Navi's activities are backed by 10 years of clinical research - 80k youth have benefited already and 400 clinical trials have proven the effectiveness of Single Session Interventions. Navi was co-designed with youth across three states to ensure that this type of support is what youth want and will use if offered.

This $75k grant will allow Navi to provide free access to our clinically-proven, self-guided mental wellness app for up to 25k youth aged 13–25 across the City of LA, with a focus on reaching those who face barriers to traditional care. Navi delivers 10-minute, research-backed activities that are available 24/7 via our web based app—no waitlists, no insurance, and no pressure to talk to someone if they're not ready. Self-guided activities help youth navigate everyday challenges: not making the soccer team, a fight with a friend, or getting a bad test grade. There is no diagnosis needed to benefit, but we do measure outcomes impact on hopelessness and anxiety. We’re ready to scale our impact in LA. Grant funds will support direct implementation in schools (including ongoing conversations with LAUSD and local charter networks), a targeted social media campaign, and the growth of our Youth Advisory Council, which meets weekly on Zoom to shape content, outreach strategies, and ensure relevance to LA youth. By combining youth-led design with accessible tech, Navi helps young people feel better, faster—and prevents crises before they escalate. Navi can detect risk of suicide and implements a safety planning intervention in those cases. Navi provides on-ramps to youth who are ready and willing to engage in more traditional support. We can customize the app per school and per community so that the youth see very specific resources for their region.

Los Angeles County will be a national leader in proactive, scalable youth mental health support. Through Navi, thousands of young people will experience measurable reductions in hopelessness—one of the strongest predictors of suicidal thinking and long-term distress. Youth who may have otherwise had nothing will gain access to tools that help them feel more hopeful, empowered, and connected-- within minutes.
As a result, fewer youth will reach the point of crisis. Schools and providers will no longer bear the impossible burden of being the first and only line of defense. Instead, they’ll be able to triage more effectively—focusing their limited resources on those who need higher levels of care, while Navi scales to anyone who needs self-guided support in their moment of need. Emergency room visits for mental health concerns will decrease. Waitlists will shrink. And LA’s youth will finally have access to the timely, meaningful support they deserve.