New Campaign Putting Research to Work to Build the Support Young People Need Today

Children are growing up in a dramatically different world from even a decade ago. Mental health challenges are rising, one in three girls reports suicidal ideation, and the US ranks near the bottom in child wellbeing, all while test scores keep declining.

Digital immersion is constant and is reshaping how kids learn, connect, make decisions, and understand themselves. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support creativity, problem-solving, and learning, but it can also replace critical thinking, deepen isolation, and erode human connection.

This moment demands more than isolated programs or sector-specific solutions. It demands a shared strategy for helping children and young people thrive in a rapidly changing world.

 Decades of interdisciplinary research tell us how to do it: safety, relational health, belonging, curiosity, persistence, resilience, meaning, purpose, voice, and agency. These are the universal building blocks of thriving. They are not “soft skills.” They are what make learning possible and drive long-term outcomes in wellbeing, civic participation, and economic mobility.

What’s missing is a shared strategy for putting this knowledge to work across the system. 

In partnership with the Thrive Center at Georgetown, a new campaign (Concept Paper and Sign Call to Action Letter) is building cross-sector policy so that every part of a young person's life, from schools and afterschool programs to health systems, youth sports, libraries, camps, museums, workforce pathways, and communities of faith, reinforces the same foundations for thriving.

This campaign would shape:

• Policy Outside Government: each sector’s professional standards, workforce training, accreditation, quality, and data dashboards, philanthropic giving, and then:

• Federal Policy: funding streams and requirements, accountability systems, guidance and regulations, and data and reporting systems.

The result is simple: young people consistently get what they need to thrive. The adults and institutions surrounding them reinforce the same developmental foundations, and the system begins to work with communities rather than against them.

The campaign includes these steps:

1. Listen to the Field to Support Young People. Understand where current policy diverges from what research says young people need to thrive, and what greater alignment would mean for communities.

2. Establish Shared Language. Synthesize decades of converging research into a shared understanding of the developmental foundations that support thriving.

3. Publish a Shared Roadmap. Bring together the research consensus and cross-sector recommendations into a roadmap for professional organizations, funders, and policymakers.

4. Translate into Practice. Work across education, afterschool, health, youth development, and other sectors to embed the shared language into standards, training, and guidance.

5. Align Policy with the Roadmap. Work with federal and state leaders so funding, accountability systems, guidance, and professional standards reinforce the roadmap.

Examples of What Changes to Support Young People if This Works

• Education measures the engagement, curiosity, and persistence that drive academics.

• Pediatrics elevates relational health, prevention, and family connection.

• Professional standards across sectors align around shared developmental competencies.

• Cross-sector dashboards track indicators of healthy development alongside attendance, graduation, and postsecondary outcomes.

Advisors

• David Aylward, JD, University of Colorado

• Christina Bethell, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

• Matthew Biel, MD, Georgetown University

• Joseph Bishop, PhD, UCLA Ctr for the Transformation of Schools

• Pamela Cantor, MD, The Human Potential L.A.B.

• Anita Chandra, PhD, RAND Corporation

• Angela Duckworth, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

• Ronald Ferguson, PhD, The BASICS

• Diana Fishbein, PhD, University of North Carolina; National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives

• Lisa Guernsey, New America

• Helen Janc Malone, EdD, Inst. for Educational Leadership

• Nat Kendall-Taylor, PhD, FrameWorks Institute

• Kyle MacDonald, MD, Columbia University

• Erin Mote, InnovateEDU

• Elson Nash, PhD, EdRedesign Lab, Harvard University

• Jane Quinn, PhD

• Carolyne Quintana, EdD, Teaching Matters

• Roberto Rodriguez, Georgetown University

• Annie Slease, Mental Health Literacy Collaborative

• Mia Sundstrom, National Institute of Play

• Shané Tate, Six Tool Solutions

• Joaquin Tamayo, Communities in Schools

• Leslie Walker, MD, Seattle Children’s Hospital

• Joe Waters, Capita

• David Willis, MD, Georgetown University

• Bob Wise, JD, 33rd Governor of West Virginia, Cofounder, Global Science of Learning Education Network

• Casie Wise, EdD, National Indian Education Association

• Rebecca Wolfe, PhD, Threadwell Solutions

• David Yeager, PhD, University of Texas

Project Lead: Philip Steigman, Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy

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