Community Organization, BetterHelp, Bolsters Yleana’s Commitment to Mental Health
New York, NY —Organizational support in addition to private philanthropy has been instrumental in scaling our programs, reaching more students, and, in essence, bolstering our commitment to educational and economic equity. As we reach our 10-year anniversary, we are thrilled to partner with BetterHelp on strengthening our commitment to provide access to students who are education-bound to reach their full academic potential while building generational and economic wealth, particularly with underserved communities and underrepresented populations. This six-figure partnership will lay the foundation for integrating digital mental health and therapeutic services with the educational core of our mission.
BetterHelp is a mental health platform that provides online mental health services directly to consumers. The online counseling and therapy services are provided through web-based interaction as well as phone and text communication. “It’s no secret that first-generation students of color, especially on PWI campuses, need mental health support - it’s the number one thing our kids ask for when we ask how we can support them. I’m so happy to be partnering with BetterHelp to ensure that our kids get access to the mental health resources they need. It’s so kind of BetterHelp and it will have an appreciable, tangible outcome for our students, especially those currently in college who tell me that wait times for introductory appointments with providers takes over six weeks, and where those in early stages of their career often can’t afford mental health. Thank you, BetterHelp, for giving our students the resources they need, and supporting them through college graduation and into career success!” said Alyssa Bowlby, Co-Founder and Executive Director. “Also, our mission is TO and THROUGH college - having someone to turn to in times of crisis, struggle, or just quotidian existence makes it possible to make it to the college finish line.”
Due to circumstances of birth - race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and much more - there exists a vast discrepancy in possibilities a student’s future holds: an opportunity gap. The opportunity gap gets even wider after college, where college creates student debt burdens and sets up starting salaries for students. The average college graduation rate for low-SES, first-gen students in the United States is 11-12%; Yleana’s college graduation rate is 80%. Multiplying the college graduation rate by 8 for first-gen and cutting student loans in half or getting rid of them completely means Yleana has a tangible impact on students’ financial outcomes - a college degree means they’ll make at LEAST (depending on which study you look at) 1 million more over the course of their lives, and that they will live seven years longer on average.
The Yleana Leadership Foundation sees the US’s racial wealth gap (economic/wealth accumulation) as a consequence of the opportunity gap (education). Our mission is to decrease the opportunity gap in order to decrease the racial wealth gap - by making sure students have access to the best resources possible as they enter college, we will change their economic position and ability to accumulate wealth as adults.
Our population is 95% BIPOC, primarily Black and Latinx, with an average family income of $32,829. We partner with high schools and CBOs in Baltimore, Boston/North Shore MA, NYC, and Philadelphia. We are emphatically a non-creaming organization, meaning our actions are directed at slow, incremental change in the thick middle of the curve.