EMERGING ADULTS’
RIGHT TO WELLBEING
A COLLECTIVE CALL TO TRANSFORM SUPPORT SYSTEMS
FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN THE NORDICS
Join the movement - our time to act is now!
Watch the video - listen and feel - when emerging adults from the Nordics
share our vision and six key insights for action from the report.
The challenge of a generation - our moment to act!
With rising mental health challenges, a great number of emerging adults struggle to reach their full potential.
In fact, no other age group reports as many challenges as 18-29 year-olds while also having a hard time accessing affordable and appropriate support. This is what we want to change.
As cultivators of social entrepreneurship, we don’t subscribe to a single cure-all solution to a systemic and multifaceted problem. Instead, we are reaching out to entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, practitioners and emerging adults in a united cross-sector effort to revolutionize mental health support in the Nordics.
From healing to thriving, from personal to community, we empower scalable solutions and advocacy initiatives that each hold a unique promise to secure emerging adults’ human right to be well.
Together, we can create a Nordic-wide revolution in mental well-being for emerging adults.
The cost of inaction is too high. The time to act is now. Will you join us?
THIS IS OUR CALL TO TO ACTION
READ OUR REPORT, JOIN THE MOVEMENT & CHANGE THE SYSTEM
“Emerging Adults’ Right to Wellbeing:
A collective call to transform support systems for mental health in the Nordics”
SIX KEY INSIGHTS FOR ACTION
To turn the tide on emerging adults’ mental health, this report provides six key insights for action needed across all levels of society:
1.Establish emerging adults as their own target group
Policies, research, and services must adapt to the specific challenges at this transitional stage. This includes investing in support and health promotion for those in particularly vulnerable situations, such as national minorities, individuals in low-income areas, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Establishing this age group as distinct empowers targeted, effective solutions.
2. Destigmatize seeking support for mental health
Conversations around mental health must be normalized in everyday spaces — social media, educational institutions, community centers, and sports clubs. By amplifying society-wide efforts to raise mental health literacy and promote healthy narratives, especially for groups facing compounded risk factors like discrimination and social exclusion, the barrier of stigma loses its grip.
3. Ensure responsibility and commitment from key actors in emerging adults' lives
Educational institutions, workplaces, and local communities must take active responsibility for promoting and implementing effective mental well-being strategies. Integrating basic mental health awareness and proactive support strategies in these everyday environments creates core pillars of a broader support system.
4. Commit to cross-sector collaboration to increase access to proactive support
Stronger collaboration must be activated between public, private, and civil society actors to deliver coordinated, accessible, and preventive mental health support.
Clear roles, incentives, and shared goals make cross-sector collaboration effective, transforming fragmented support systems into healing networks.
5. Improve access to low-threshold support during critical transition phases
Community-driven and social-venture solutions must be scaled and made more accessible through centralized information hubs and supportive policies. By recognizing that these trusted, low-barrier platforms often reach emerging adults more effectively, their role within the wider system is strengthened.
6. Improve implementation of proven mental health innovations for emerging adults
Successful models developed by social entrepreneurs and civil society must be structurally supported to scale impact. By using long-term, blended funding solutions and procurement systems that enable integration into existing frameworks, sustainable and systemic change is fortified.
Our approach is two-folded including both an incubator program and systematic advocacy initiatives.
Social entrepreneurs have a remarkable ability to revolutionize mental health support, but they can’t do it alone. To thrive and expand their impact, they require a nurturing ecosystem and the unwavering support of cross-sector partners.
Next in Mind has a two-folded approach, where we firstly offer a dedicated incubator program that focus on developing and scaling the social entrepreneurs’ businesses. Among others, these activities include sharpening their operating model, readiness to scale, impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation as well as funding strategies.
Secondly, we gather, empower and facilitate co-created advocacy activities to impact the systems of support for mental wellbeing solutions within the Nordics.
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