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The AIM Youth Ambassadors program recognizes and supports high school students who are committed to transforming youth mental health through advocacy, research, and real-world implementation. Youth Ambassadors leverage their research findings to drive meaningful change in their schools and communities. They receive structured support to advocate for youth-centered mental health solutions rooted in evidence and lived experience.
Ambassadors can contribute to the AIM-plify podcast, learn directly from mental health researchers and professionals through mentorship and a featured speaker series, build new skills through workshops, and share their work as youth leaders and advocates.
Along the way, they grow as confident mental health advocates who promote awareness, reduce stigma, and ensure that youth voice remains central in mental health research, policy, and practice.
The AIM Youth Ambassadors program is an exclusive opportunity for AIM Ideas Lab alumni.
Take the first step and apply to AIM Ideas Lab today!
AIM-plified is youth-led interview series hosted by AIM Youth Ambassadors, putting young people in direct conversation with researchers and policymakers shaping youth mental health today.
Each episode is an intergenerational dialogue: youth hosts bring their own perspective and invite experts to speak directly to the next generation, passing the baton from those shaping the field now to those who will lead it in the future.
Watch the latest episodes below:
AIM Youth Ambassadors serve as youth co-researchers alongside AIM’s Clinical Science Fellows, early-career scientists conducting research on youth mental health.
In this role, Youth Ambassadors do more than inform the research. They help shape it, bringing a youth perspective into the design, questions, and findings that will influence how mental health support is developed and delivered for the next generation.
Meet our current AIM Clinical Science Fellows:
AIM Youth Ambassadors partner with schools, districts, and community organizations to shape youth mental health policy and practice from the inside.
By working directly with school and district leaders, Youth Ambassadors bring youth voice into the rooms where decisions get made, advocating for mental health supports that work for students.
Through speaking engagements at conferences and community events, Youth Ambassadors represent AIM and center youth perspectives in the broader mental health conversation, connecting research, policy, and lived experience.
Youth Co-Mentors are AIM Ideas Lab graduates who return as peer leaders, co-facilitating sessions and guiding the next cohort of youth researchers through the same experience that shaped them.
In this role, youth co-mentors sharpen their skills in facilitation, leadership, and mental health advocacy while supporting newer participants to do their best work.
For many, it’s a first step into the youth mental health workforce, opening pathways to careers in mental health, education, research, and policy.
