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Olive is a student fellow for Hopeful Empowered Youth -Greater Cincinnati or HEY! It’s a coalition made up of hundreds of stakeholders from health care providers to community organizations with a common goal of improving youth mental health in the region.

bi3 and Interact for Health received the 2024 Philanthropy Innovation Award on September 24 at Philanthropy Ohio’s Philanthropy Forward ’24 conference. Presented annually by Philanthropy Ohio, the award recognizes a funder who has moved philanthropy forward through an implemented idea or innovation that led to positive change in how the sector operates, thinks or impacts communities.

Winstead is now helping the organization devise and implement a 10-year plan that lays out a guide for working with schools and caregivers to improve youth mental health outcomes in a 12-county area.

The group has released a 10-year plan designed to improve the environment that youth find themselves in today by changing practices, policies, and attitudes in schools, the mental health system, and the community at large.

School hadn’t started yet, but a balmy August evening found a group of mostly teens gathered around a room that looks a lot like a classroom. Some were as young as 16, and together, they’re working on a plan to combat Greater Cincinnati’s youth mental health crisis.

In developing its 10-year strategy, HEY! made a concerted effort to involve the region’s young people. Working with a steering committee, the organization hired youth fellows to be key decision-makers throughout the planning process.