Minnesota was among the first to launch Youth Mental Health Corps, but DOGE cuts could put it in jeopardy

Sometimes it’s their home life. Other times it’s friendships, dating or rumors circling at Murray Middle School.

Whatever the subject, Anjali Hay listens to the St. Paul students’ concerns, points them to others when she can’t meet a need and keeps on them about schoolwork.

“They feel they can come to me as a trusted adult,” the 20-year-old said, noting that some students feel lost in a big school system. She works to ensure “they are seen and feel that they are heard. And I think it’s shown through their attendance and their grades.”

Minnesota was one of the first states in the nation to launch the Youth Mental Health Corps, with members like Hay serving roughly 1,200 middle and high school students this school year. Others helped about 200 young adults navigate addiction recovery.

The corps’ work has begun as youth mental health nationally has worsened and as Minnesota has too few mental health professionals and school counselors to meet kids’ needs. The state has the third worst student-to-counselor ratio in the country.

But the program, comprised in Minnesota of AmeriCorps participants who get eight hours of additional mental health first aid training, could be in jeopardy as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chopped national grant funding for AmeriCorps.

Officials working with Minnesota’s Youth Mental Health Corps plan to expand the program next September and say they “remain hopeful” it won’t be affected by federal cuts.

“Everyone is waiting to see what happens,” said Murray Middle School Assistant Principal Richard Terrell, who supervised Hay. Students who worked with her improved academically and had a “shift in their attitude,” he said. Terrell hopes the program continues and serves more kids next year.

Other school workers are wary of the mental health corps. While members may be passionate and caring, they could end up in complicated situations where their lack of education or knowledge of best practices could have unintended consequences, said Sydney Piras, chair-elect of the Minnesota School Counselor Association.

“The premise of a program like that is great,” Piras said, but “it is always going to be concerning to most professionals in the mental health field themselves, especially if it is connected to education, if individuals are receiving that little training.”

Piras would like corps members to get a year of training before engaging in mental health and recovery work with young people. Piras noted that many people who had their own mental health or substance use disorder challenges are interested in helping others and stressed that to do the work, “you have to be in a solid place yourself.”

About 20 of the Youth Mental Health Corps members in Minnesota are 18-to 29-year-olds who work at nonprofits and other organizations serving people with substance use disorders through AmeriCorps Recovery Corps. That program has “rigorous” training of more than 40 hours and participants need one year of sustained recovery before becoming a navigator who can assist people with goals and resources to support their recovery, said Alana Stimes, who works with Recovery Corps.

Another 45 members are AmeriCorps Promise Fellows, ages 18 to 24, who work in schools or community organizations, like YMCAs, to help kids who are struggling and keep them in school. In addition to the training they typically receive, the fellows also did the eight-hour mental health first aid certification this year, said Kate Suchomel, with the Minnesota Alliance With Youth, which runs the Promise Fellows program.

The certification helps them identify whether a student is struggling with a mental health crisis, provides tips and tools on how to approach the student, help them express their feelings and connect them with a mental health professional, Suchomel said. She said the corps members fill a sweet spot.

“They are not a teacher, they are not a principal, so they don’t have that association with a student’s grades; they don’t have an association with any disciplinary action,” Suchomel said. “Students often talk about how this person can be someone that they go to if they’re not comfortable approaching a teacher with something.”

Next school year, Suchomel said the plan is to expand the training and career portion of the program by having corps members get a mental and behavioral health worker certificate at Century College as they are serving with AmeriCorps.

While planning for Minnesota’s next season of the Youth Mental Health Corps, Suchomel said programs in other states are being affected by the Trump administration’s cuts.

Minnesota was one of four states, along with Colorado, Michigan and Texas, to launch the corps last year; another seven states are planning for it.

The Schultz Family Foundation and Pinterest have been working with public entities to fund the program nationwide. Minnesota is getting $500,000 in private dollars for the corps, said Marie Groak with the Schultz Family Foundation. As the foundation and Pinterest’s two- to four-year investment fades, she said they are bullish that states and others will pull together dollars to continue the work.

The Youth Mental Health Corps is doing preventative work with young people who might not be in a mental health crisis but are struggling and don’t know where to turn, said Alise Marshall, with Pinterest.

The program isn’t intended to give young workers a full education, she said, but it introduces them to the mental health field while offering youth a “near-peer” they can identify with and understands the pressures they face, including from social media.

Youth Mental Health Corps member Joshua Ramirez, 27, struggled with addiction for about half his life. He started working as a recovery navigator in September and received the mental health training. He plans to continue working in that field.

“The main thing is really just being able to share my experiences with a brother or really just listening and giving them an ear, some compassion,” Ramirez said. “In my past, I didn’t get a lot of that.”