Skate Mind Project

The Skate Mind Project seeks to strengthen wellbeing and build resilience in communities, especially among young people, through the powerful partnering of skateboarding and evidence-based mental health workshops. We are bringing together the positive aspects of skateboarding (physical exercise and community) along with coping skills in order to foster techniques needed to navigate many of life’s challenges youth face today. The Skate Mind Project was created by a clinical psychologist/professor and a graduate student/professional skateboarder at the Center for Global Mental Health, at the New School University in NYC. The Skate Mind Project leads trainings in skate shops and skate parks. We have found that by integrating mental health trainings into skateboarding, we can leverage the many existing powerful physical benefits of skating and strong sense of community in order to reach young people who may not always have access to or know about the importance of learning mental health and wellbeing strategies. Each young person who completes the training will receive a “certificate of completion” in the form of a skateboard. The underside of the skateboard will indicate their completion and include strategies, which they can feel proud to show to peers and use to support one another.