We recently connected with Sarah Shelke and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Mind4Youth serves underserved youth of color around the world from low-income backgrounds who lack access to mental health resources and services. Access to mental health care faces significant barriers where youth experience rising rates of suicide and mental health struggles. As immigrant families often reject the idea of mental health, suicide rates have been particularly high among youth of color. Through creating programs like HeartCare and S.E.L.F Care, we have distributed 1,900+ mental health kits across the US, Mexico, and Canada, including free therapy vouchers and self-care products.

Over 90% of the Mind4Youth team consists of people of color and/or who come from underrepresented backgrounds, including foster care and the juvenile justice system. For instance, our Global Advocacy Conference, with 100+ attendees, was created with the purpose of highlighting youth activists of color while encouraging young changemakers worldwide to take action by embracing their backgrounds. Together, Mind4Youth has facilitated 110,000 volunteer hours globally.

Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was 12, a close family member of mine was diagnosed with depression and nearly took his own life. The experience was heartbreaking and life-changing. Yet, as an immigrant family, we faced overwhelming financial barriers to healthcare, influenced by the stigma in Asian culture that mental health was not as important as physical health. Seeking help felt taboo, and my brother’s struggles were dismissed as something he should “just get over.” A few years later, a 16-year-old in my community died by suicide, and I began to notice a pattern: most of the teens who committed suicide in my area were people of color. I could not stop thinking about the systemic barriers marginalized communities face – racism, financial inequality, and cultural silences – all of which make accessing mental health care incredibly difficult. It ignited a desire to dismantle this stigma and increase access to resources to support others like my brother and fellow community members.

This story gave me motivation and purpose throughout my journey with starting Mind4Youth. The organization has grown into one of the largest 100% youth-led mental health nonprofits, with nearly 15,000 youth volunteers in over 60 countries. Through leading various initiatives, our team has been able to fundraise $260,000 to donate 22,000 items to homeless shelters and schools primarily serving youth of color who come from low-income backgrounds. I am the most proud of our work engaging other community members and organizations to create change together. Through working with companies like Better Help and Scholastic, we have been able to provide 1,800 therapy sessions for free and hundreds of books through our Literacy Program.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Before Mind4Youth became the large-scale organization it is today, it all started with a simple Instagram account. My goal was to raise awareness online, knowing that social media is where many teens spend their time. I used every free moment between school and breaks to create content from scratch on Canva. At first, my posts didn’t get as much engagement as I had hoped, partly because I was still learning the ropes. So, I started using Canva templates to make my posts more visually appealing and engaging.

Even as our posts slowly gained likes, the growth wasn’t as fast as I had hoped. Through research, I discovered that Instagram Reels had a much better chance of going viral compared to regular posts. Since I didn’t have much experience with video content, I decided to build a team. I recruited members through LinkedIn, asking applicants to submit a short video they had created on TikTok or Reels. This process helped us find our next social media content lead, and as we expanded our team, we were able to post more consistently, which helped keep our followers engaged.

One of our Reels, which we also reposted on TikTok, went viral on both platforms. We quickly realized that videos performed best when they grabbed viewers’ attention within the first few seconds. By using this strategy consistently, we grew to over 30,000 followers across our platforms and reached over 2 million impressions.

Along with leveraging platforms that push content to a wider audience, my biggest advice for anyone starting to build their social media presence is to be patient. In the first few months, our accounts stayed under 1,000 followers, with posts averaging around 25 likes. Growth was slow, but by staying consistent, our audience steadily grew. With social media, consistency is everything. Luck plays a role, but the more you post, the better your chances of going viral.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Although it surprises some, given that Mind4Youth has raised six figures today, I actually started it with no funding. While fundraising is crucial for most NGOs, it really depends on the initiatives and programs you offer. In the beginning, our main focus was providing virtual internships and volunteer opportunities, which didn’t require funding. I was fortunate to work with generous volunteers who were willing to contribute their time and skills unpaid to create these opportunities for other youth.

Our initial goal was simply to spread awareness online. However, I soon realized that while our posts were reaching young people—our target audience—many of them might not have access to or be able to afford mental health services and resources. This realization pushed me to think bigger and expand our impact beyond just raising awareness, beginning my need for funding. Fortunately, Mind4Youth had already built a strong social media presence, which helped establish our credibility when reaching out to larger companies and brands for donations. The thrill of submitting donation requests online and cold-emailing local businesses, knowing there was a possibility we might receive support, kept me up at night with excitement.

Eventually, we received our first monetary donation of $300 from a grocery chain outlet, and I was able to launch Mind4Youth’s first program, HeartCare. Through HeartCare, we created mental health kits with items such as mental health bracelets, a therapy voucher offering free online therapy through one of our partnerships, bath bombs, and mental health stickers. Through our first donation, we created 100 mental health kits and distributed them through libraries in areas with a predominant population of youth of color from low-income backgrounds.

However, it took countless donation requests and plenty of rejections to get Mind4Youth to where it is today. While some companies turned down our initial requests for monetary donations, we discovered new opportunities for partnerships and occasionally received product donations instead. Some of these partnerships have even lasted for over a year, proving that persistence and creativity in fundraising can open unexpected doors.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mind4youth.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mind4youthofficial/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindforyouth/