Programs / Mind Over Media
Mind Over Media.
Mind Over Media is a tech-enabled public awareness and education campaign designed to reduce preventable child deaths by providing marginalized youth in Nevada with culturally responsive resources regarding mental health, suicide awareness, and injury prevention.
The story of the program
The inception of Mind Over Media follows the prevention framework of our partners at the Nevada Department of Public and Behavioral Health, Offices for Suicide Prevention. While suicide remains a leading cause of death in our state, traditional awareness campaigns frequently fail to resonate with youth from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and low-income backgrounds. These initiatives often rely on outdated messaging and lack the representation necessary to build trust. Mind Over Media was founded to change the order of that conversation by moving prevention into the digital spaces where youth actually live and lead.
Mind Over Media addresses the stigma and systemic neglect that place Nevada’s underserved youth at a disproportionate risk for adverse childhood experiences. The campaign moves to create a youth-centered architecture of safety. By leveraging innovative technology, from AI-driven content to interactive live streaming, we provide the “mirrors” these young people need to see themselves inside the work. Our expertise in digital strategy ensures that life-saving education is not just accessible, but actionable. We are filling a critical gap in the regional prevention infrastructure, replacing “one-size-fits-all” templates with an ultra-culturally responsive framework that speaks the language of the community.
This project is a direct response to a public health crisis that consistently leaves our most vulnerable populations behind. Like the shift in global athletics toward holistic wellbeing, Mind Over Media is setting a new standard for public awareness. We turn lived experience into data-driven storytelling, ensuring that the unique voices of our youth are not just counted, but are the primary architects of the systemic change we drive.
Approach and methodology
Mind Over Media utilizes a tech-driven, community-informed implementation strategy to maximize accessibility and engagement. Our methodology is built on a multi-platform digital outreach model that integrates real-time feedback with scalable content production. We use professional livestream broadcasting tools to deliver interactive educational workshops simultaneously across up to ten social media platforms, allowing for live engagement and Q&A with expert panelists. To maintain a consistent and relatable voice, we use AI-assisted digital content production to generate video shorts, GIFs, and digital toolkits that simplify complex behavioral health topics for both youth and caregivers.
This high-tech approach is grounded by high-touch community engagement. We facilitate focus groups to ensure all campaign materials are culturally relevant and authentically reflect youth experiences. Central to our methodology is a custom participant portal that serves as a hub for qualitative data collection and resource sharing. By tracking engagement metrics and changes in attitudes in real time, we can adapt our programming to meet emerging community needs, ensuring that our prevention efforts drive measurable, systemic improvements in child safety.
Who it is for
- Marginalized Youth: Specifically individuals ages 13 to 26 in Nevada who face higher risks of suicide and preventable injuries.
- High-Risk Demographics: Youth from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and low-income backgrounds who experience barriers to traditional mental health care.
- Southern Nevada Communities: Focused on underserved zip codes in Clark County where systemic neglect and mortality rates are highest.
- Caregiver Ecosystems: Parents, educators, and guardians who receive digital toolkits and resources to support youth safety.
- Health Systems: Regional prevention infrastructure that benefits from our real-time data and culturally responsive messaging.
Partners and collaborators
Named with written permission:
- Intermountain Health, Community Initiatives
Government funder:
- Nevada Department of Child and Family Services, Child Death Review (grant funder, 2025)
How we hold participants safely.
Mind Over Media serves youth ages 13 to 26. Minor participants (under 18) take part only with written consent from a parent or guardian. Adult participants (18 to 26) consent for themselves. Programming, content, and focus group protocols are age-appropriate and structured to respect the developmental and legal context of each age band.
Some Desert Rose Gives team members and volunteers are licensed clinical professionals who are mandatory reporters under Nevada law (NRS 432B). Mind Over Media is a public awareness and prevention campaign; it is not a clinical service and is not a substitute for clinical care. In cases of suspected child abuse, elder abuse, or imminent harm, Desert Rose Gives follows Nevada reporting requirements.
Volunteers who work directly with youth complete background screening and mandatory reporter training before participating in programs.
Participate, refer, or support.
Participate. Weekly session information is posted ahead of time on the News page and shared through community and partner channels. To join or host a session, reach us through the Contact page.
Refer. If you know a young person, family, or peer who could use what Mind Over Media offers, send them our way. Referrals are welcome from partners, schools, and community members.
Support. Mind Over Media is community funded. You can support the program by donating, volunteering as a co-facilitator or host, or offering an in-kind resource such as meeting space, food, or materials.
