By June Peers

The Active Minds Club at Granada Hills Charter (GHC) encourages students to speak openly about mental health, aiming to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health challenges. Established in 2019 as a chapter of the nationwide Active Minds nonprofit organization, the club showed promising success. Even though meetings were initially held virtually, students were eager to participate in the club’s efforts.

This is due in part to quarantine measures during Covid-19. High schoolers, in particular, were isolated from their friends and missed out on significant life experiences, such as graduation and prom. 

Along with a global pandemic, a global epidemic of mental health problems emerged. According to the World Health Organization, “During COVID-19, anxiety and depression prevalence increased by 25 percent globally.” With these issues rising at an alarming rate, current president and senior Angela Yang recognized the need for mental support.

“In my freshman year, I joined Active Minds as treasurer since I saw the value in focusing on mental well-being,” Yang said. “I witnessed countless friends, even in middle school, dealing with difficult emotional and mental turmoil in their lives.”

Not only is it essential to provide a safe support group within our community, but it is also important to teach people the value of mental health education. Yang, along with other club officers, organized self-care events during Covid-19 where they educated members on nuanced topics under the umbrella term of “mental health.” For these events, Active Minds partnered with other community service clubs at GHC such as Bee the Hope to further spread their educational goals among students. Today, they continue to educate their members on similar topics at their club meetings.

“We view topics, such as mental health in sports, media portrayal, generational gaps, and different kinds of mental health conditions people undergo,” senior and Vice President Liesel Grace Mendoza said.

GHC’s Active Minds Club is just one of the organization’s 500 student-led chapters.  Since 2003, over 1,000 schools, including UC’s and CSU’s, have adopted Active Minds’ mission of enhancing mental health prevention by establishing their own chapters on campus.

Overall, Active Minds provides youth with both a supportive and educational environment to discuss their mental health concerns. If you are interested in joining, Active Minds holds meetings every Friday at lunch in J10.