Morgan Stanley Announces Children’s Mental Health Innovation Award Winners, Expands Program to Next Gen Leaders

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Morgan Stanley today announced the 2025 winners of its Alliance for Children’s Mental Health (the “Alliance”) Innovation Awards, an initiative that aims to fund and advance transformative mental healthcare solutions for children and young adults across the U.S.

Five organizations have been chosen from more than 800 applicants for their inventive and scalable solutions for improving children’s mental health outcomes, as well as demonstrated expertise in the services they deliver. Each winning organization is awarded $100,000 to expand its programming, receives training from industry professionals, and builds connections with other nonprofits and potential funders in the space.

Morgan Stanley also announced a new Next Gen category as part of the awards program to address the unmet need for mental health talent and solutions. Eligible organizations founded or led by individuals under 32 years old will receive up to $50,000 to bolster their programming.

“Over the past five years, the Alliance for Children’s Mental Health has seen firsthand how funding for innovative nonprofits can make a transformative impact on children and their caregivers. With nearly half of our country’s youth impacted by a mental health issue, support for new solutions is critical,” said Joan Steinberg, President of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and CEO of the Alliance for Children’s Mental Health’s Advisory Board. “Looking ahead, we are excited to expand our awards program to support younger leaders in their work to drive meaningful change for today’s youth.”

The 2025 Innovation Award Winners include:

• Bring Change to Mind aims to end stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness through public education campaigns and youth programs.
  • High School Program: Adapts evidence-based, youth-led mental health program to ensure cultural relevance, with a focus on addressing unique stigma factors, improving help-seeking behaviors and mental health self-efficacy among students.
• Doc Wayne uses sport-based therapy to reimagine the delivery of mental health services for youth.
  • The Champions Network: Equips coaches, youth workers, and educators with the tools to support youth mental health by integrating evidence-based mental health practices into sports.
• Koko meets young people online and empowers them to support themselves and others through AI-moderated peer support and evidence-based digital mental health interventions.
  • Mental Health First Aid: Teaches essential helping skills young people need to support their peers and provides a structured environment where they can apply those skills with other users.
• Trek Medics International is committed to providing high-quality dispatching technology to emergency response agencies.
  • Beacon Crisis Dispatch: Coordinates dispatch efforts for local responders to youth mental health emergency incidents, ensuring rapid access to trained mental health practitioners and enabling evaluations by crisis response teams.
• We Rise International provides prevention, education, support, and treatment of mental health, substance use disorder and other health needs.
  • Mental Health SEEDs: Partners with universities and local nonprofits, training and empowering social work and counseling practicum students to lead community-based mental health support groups for young people.

The winners were selected by experts from the Alliance, which brings together leaders from Morgan Stanley and distinguished nonprofits in the children's mental health space.

In addition to the awards, over 140 leaders representing around 100 nonprofits will participate in the Leadership Learning Series. Launched in 2024, the program offers expert-led and peer-sharing sessions covering topics such as strategic development, funding for scaling and impact measurement.

Organizations interested in the 2026 Innovation Awards, including the Next Gen category, can visit here to learn more about the program and previous winners, sign up for a briefing session on May 27, 2025, and submit applications through July 7, 2025.

About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management, and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

About Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health
Launched in 2020, the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health brings together key leaders in the children's mental health space and combines the resources and reach of Morgan Stanley with the knowledge and experience of its distinguished nonprofit member organizations. The Alliance helps strategically address children's mental health concerns and the far-reaching challenges of stress, anxiety, and depression. For more information about the Alliance, visit www.morganstanley.com/mentalhealthalliance.