Closegap & Morgan Stanley: Where innovation arises & how it gets funded
Apr 9, 2024
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Rachel Miller, founder of Closegap, and Joan Steinberg, CEO of Morgan Stanley, discuss Closegap's innovative technology for children's mental health. They cover the motivation behind the innovation, the application process, and the long-term impact of Morgan Stanley's funding.
Closegap's technology offers free mental health check-ins for K-12 students, aiding early intervention and support from teachers.
Closegap's partnership with Morgan Stanley provides crucial funding, enabling scalability and enhancing organizational credibility.
Deep dives
Children's Mental Health Crisis: Increasing Demand for Support
High school students in the US are struggling with mental health, with a significant increase in sadness and suicidal behaviors in recent years. Despite the rising need, only half of US public schools provide mental health assessments, and even fewer offer treatment. The low funding allocated to mental health causes, with only 1.3% of foundation investments going towards this area, highlights the urgent requirement for more helpers to support children's mental health.
CloseGap's Innovative Approach to Supporting Children's Mental Health
CloseGap, a nonprofit organization, has developed a technology-driven solution to allow students from kindergarten to grade 12 to express their mental health status in a safe digital space. By offering a free mental health check-in, CloseGap enables students to share their emotions and situations, helping teachers and counselors intervene in real time. The platform's focus on early intervention aims to address the 10-year delay in receiving mental health support for young individuals.
Personal Experience Driving CloseGap's Mission
CloseGap's team, including founder Rachel Miller, has firsthand experience with mental health challenges, motivating them to create tools that support children in ways they needed when younger. Rachel's journey of overcoming mental health struggles, including suicidal tendencies and self-harm, underscores the importance of providing young individuals with the necessary emotional support and coping skills to navigate adversities effectively.
Impact and Growth Through Collaborative Funding
CloseGap's collaboration with Morgan Stanley's Alliance for Children's Mental Health has been instrumental in providing funding and support for their innovative mental health solution. The grant received enabled CloseGap to scale its operations, serving a significantly larger number of students and schools. Beyond financial assistance, the partnership boosted CloseGap's credibility and provided valuable PR support, showcasing the holistic impact of collaborative funding on nonprofit growth and success.
Today’s episode explores this relationship by focusing on Rachel Miller, founder and CEO of Closegap, and her story. We’ll also hear from Joan Steinberg, CEO of the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health, as she provides further commentary on why Closegap’s innovative approach stood out to them.
In this episode, we’ll cover:
• What makes Closegap’s technology so innovative
• What motivated this innovation
• How this innovation comes through in the application process
• What Morgan Stanley’s funding means for Closegap in the long term
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