Educating and Equipping High School Students on Core
Mental Health Concepts Through Live Events and Video Modules
LAUNCH provides an engaging, year-long series of events that build relationships with high school students and equips them with the tools they need to manage their mental health in a constantly changing world. It's built by our team of educators and an advisory board of mental health professionals, grounded in evidence-based frameworks like Dialectical Behavior Therapy and CASEL's model for social-emotional learning. It is not improvised or guesswork. This isn't a curriculum that is handed off to teachers in the hopes that they can work it into their daily material. This is a plug and play program that creates experiences designed to capture the attention of high school students and give them the information and skills they need to thrive.
event module offerings
Core Values: Building Our Personal Compass
Students will be introduced to the concept of Values Based Living, and will complete a reflective exercise to identify their core values and be invited to consider their current goals and direction through the lens of those values.
DBT: Interpersonal Effectiveness, Mindfulness
CASEL5: Self Awareness, Responsible Decision Making, Self-Management
Predisposition: Knowing Ourselves and Tendencies
Students will learn the basics of 2 of the Big 5 Personality Traits, Extroversion and Agreeableness, self-assess their levels in each, and reflect on the specific strengths and potential blind spots associated with their traits.
DBT: Interpersonal Effectiveness, Mindfulness
CASEL5: Self Awareness, Responsible Decision Making, Self-Management
Embracing Stress: Growing Our Windows of Tolerance
Students will be reminded that stress is a normal part of life, explore evidence-based strategies to build resilience, and practice techniques—including breathing exercises and a 25-minute yoga session—to manage difficult emotions and mitigate the discomfort of stress.
DBT: Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self Awareness, Self-Management, Relationship Skills
Guardrails: An Introduction to Adaptive Coping Strategies
Students will learn how the natural desire for comfort can lead to unhelpful coping behaviors, reflect on personal and observed responses to stress/discomfort, and explore adaptive strategies that promote safety, resilience, and solution-focused growth.
DBT: Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision Making
Thoughts: The Power of our Internal Narratives
Students will learn how their conscious and unconscious narratives shape their perceptions, recognize that humans are not their thoughts, and be able to identify five common cognitive distortions that shape perceptions. Students will be given questions to evaluate the truth and usefulness of their thoughts to better detect those distortions.
DBT: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self-Management, Self-Awareness, Relationship, Responsible Decision Making, Social Awareness
![healthy-relationships-MAIN-[16X9].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ef6611_a9c5765a0b9a4c8da50c95ad0b625526~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_551,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/healthy-relationships-MAIN-%5B16X9%5D.jpg)
Healthy Relationships 1: It's About Me
Students will learn that healthy relationships rely heavily on compassionate self-awareness and open communication of expectations and needs.
DBT: Interpersonal Effectiveness, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Relationship Skills
Healthy Relationships 2: "Fight Club" - Tools for Constructive Conflict
Students will learn that conflict is a natural part of close relationships, understand how reframing it can support growth and long-term health, and practice strategies to stay regulated for more constructive and compassionate resolutions.
DBT: Interpersonal Effectiveness, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Relationship Skills
OARS: Suicide Prevention Training
Observe. Ask. Refer. Stay Involved. Students will know the signs of suicidal ideation/emotional crisis, and will know how to get that friend/colleague/student to the help they need. They will also know helpful ways to appropriately stay involved and support the individual moving forward.
DBT: Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision Making, Social Awareness
The Weight of the World: Overwhelm and Agency
Students will consider the 24 hour news/information cycle, learn to recognize signs of overwhelm, and apply evidence-based strategies—such as Intentional Media Hygiene, Sphere-of-Control Orientation, and Strengthening Trusted Social Connections—to manage anxiety and maintain well-being.
DBT: Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation
CASEL5: Self-Awareness, Responsible Decision Making, Social Awareness
Grief: Understanding the Human Response to Loss
Students will learn the common myths surrounding grief, the complexities and difficulties surrounding healing, and how to best support a peer/friend who is grieving.
DBT: Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness
CASEL5: Relationship Skills, Social Awareness
pop-up events
Several times a year, the team puts on small events in the senior parking lot or lounge. These fun surprises allow our staff the opportunity to get to know the students better and vice versa. These investments create greater influence and trust between our teams and the students and make future events that much more effective.
Student Voices
“My biggest take away from Launch was to go into college with an open mindset. Enjoy it, introduce myself and don’t be scared to make new friends. This program has helped me so much with my nervousness and my nervousness about homesickness and everything else going into college. I’ve learned that it won’t be that bad if I meet some new friends, introduce myself, keep in touch with home and keep some things constant as I go to college like the things I love. And so I am so excited to go to college now. Thank you, Launch!”
- Mary, Charlotte Latin School
“I really had a great time at NEXT these past couple of days. I think something that has helped me a lot has just been seeing so many perspectives from professors, adults and alum that have just gotten out of college and gone through the process. It has been a lot of helpful information that puts me forward in my journey.”
- Thierry, Charlotte Latin School
“I really like the speakers that Launch brought in. They got into some topics that aren’t often explored by people our age and people we talk to all the time and I think they are topics that will really help us be prepared for college and things that we may face that we did not necessarily know before but they were also really cool stories that opened my mind a little bit.”
- Anna, Charlotte Latin School