One school's solution to the mental health crisis: Try everything

Homeless and impoverished kids still have the chance to receive a college education, they just need to have the confidence that they can do so and a little pushing from outside forces. The author shares her own story of accomplishing just that.

It’s now common for youth to remain in foster care or residential treatment for years. For troubled or victimized children in need, assistance at home is often more effective than foster placement.

The foster care system is widely acknowledged to be 'broken', and to ignore those who age out of the system. A program in Memphis is improving the lives of at-risk youths by working to reunite them with their original families.

Child mortality rates in third-world countries are often shockingly high. But they are gradually decreasing due to efforts that target contagious diseases and more widespread health education.

With pressures of depression, anxiety, and suicide on the rise, teenagers in the United States are challenged to find the comfortable outlet and accessibility for emotional support. The Crisis Text Line offers a counseling service through mobile texting, which reduces the shame that can occur when approaching an in-person counselor, and expands access to professional mental health counseling nationwide.

Fixing the education system in the country requires addressing the problem of student motivation to endure and succeed in school. Pathways to Education is a Toronto-based program designed to keep at-risk kids in school. It offers four different kinds of support: counseling, academic, social and financial, all of which contribute to a 46 percent decrease in the student drop-out rate.

When students misbehave in school, teachers struggle to decide the right kind of intervention, with school suspension a common outcome. However, research has shown that school suspensions can increase the likelihood of dropouts and incarcerations so that there is pressure to decrease the rate of suspensions. Restorative justice has become a favorable alternative because misbehaving students can participate in a number of supportive activities such as peer meditation or collaborative negotiation to build community, trust, and confidence.

A panoply of responses to poverty has emerged to address poverty in the United States and abroad. The responses share in three key tactics: Measuring impact, paying for success, and collaboration.

The Homeless World Cup is the premier soccer tournament for homeless players. Programs around the world use soccer as a means of building a sense of community, sublimating negative energies, and encouraging personal growth.

More than 800,000 people worldwide, including about 40,000 Americans, die by suicide each year. Colorado is pushing to prevent suicides by promoting awareness and changing laws to help those at risk.