Youth Centric receives $375,000 in Cobb County ARPA funds to expand high school mental-health supports

Youth Centric, an after-school program led by college students, received a $375,000 award from Cobb County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and has served about 350 high school students, program leaders said. The program uses peer-led sessions to teach resilience and coping skills aimed at improving students’ mental health and easing the transition from high school to work or further education.

The grant came through Cobb County’s community health priority category of ARPA funds. “But one unique thing about our program, and this is led by college students, because high school students told us that when it comes to mental health, they don't believe the adults in their lives can help them,” Scott Solana, founder of Youth Centric, said. He said that college mentors are perceived as having shared experience with social media and other modern stressors that adults may not have lived through.

The program places college students at high schools for in-person activities. Amber Hodgson, a Kennesaw State University student who helped run an icebreaker at Osborne High, said, “Especially when I was in high school, there was never anything like this.” Hodgson said that experience motivated her to join Youth Centric and that the program’s expansion is meaningful to volunteers and participants.

Organizers said the initial ARPA award allowed Youth Centric to develop and refine its offerings over the past two years and to serve roughly 350 students. They also said the program recently received another grant to support work over the next two years; organizers did not specify the amount of that follow-on grant. Youth Centric said the additional funding will enable expansion into Cherokee, Paulding and Bartow counties.

Program leaders described their work as focused on resilience and stress management and emphasized peer delivery. Solana noted that many high school students use Instagram and other platforms that did not exist for older adults when they were growing up, and that peer mentors can better speak to those experiences.

The county’s ARPA program lists ongoing projects at cobbcounty.gov/arpa. The program leaders said Youth Centric’s work in Cobb provided a foundation for the group’s recent and planned expansion, but they did not describe formal contracts, licensing, or the specific number of schools involved beyond the example of Osborne High.

Officials or county staff were not quoted directly in this transcript; descriptions of the ARPA award and program status came from Youth Centric organizers and a student volunteer. Questions about the total value or administrative terms of the follow-on grant, the number of additional schools to be served, and any county oversight or reporting requirements were not specified in the meeting record.