EASE

The New School is collaborating with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health (OCMH) to implement Early Adolescents Skills for Emotions (EASE) for underserved adolescents and caregivers in NYC.

The project began with a series of adaptation workshops in May-June 2024, where researchers at the Center conducted focus group discussions with stakeholders to learn about the mental health needs of underserved communities in NYC. Through a series of workshops with OCMH staff, community-based organization representatives, and participating adolescents and caregivers, we collected feedback and recommendations for locally adapting the original version of EASE published by the World Health Organization in 2023. 

Currently, we are finalizing the adaptation of the EASE manual and training to prepare for pilot implementation in early 2025. We are excited to train youth-facing community staff members in EASE and deliver the intervention to up to 200 caregivers and adolescents in NYC.