Behavioral healthComplete

Youth Resilience in Rural Communities

Rural young people often face stress, isolation and other everyday challenges in places where mental-health resources are limited. AscendRural worked with community organizations and technology partners in Central Minnesota to explore how digital supports could strengthen resilience before challenges become crises.

Where: Central Minnesota
When: September 2024 to June 2025
Format: 90-day paid pilot

Partners

The need

Rural communities told us support was needed before a crisis.

Interviews with community leaders in Central Minnesota validated the need for additional services focused on mental-health resilience among rural youth. National evidence reinforced the urgency.

40%of U.S. high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in the past year.
Nearly 2×the rural teen suicide rate compared with urban teens from 1999 to 2019: 7.6 vs 3.9 per 100,000.
70%of rural counties did not have youth-serving mental-health facilities.

Sources: as cited in Youth Resilience in Rural Communities: 90-Day Pilot Report (AscendRural, 2025).

It is that pre-crisis, pre-emergency, ‘I just need to talk to somebody’ … Our youth need that.

— Community partner

The problem statement

Young people in rural communities need accessible ways to get support for everyday mental, emotional and social struggles before those moments become crises, particularly in places where youth-serving mental-health resources are limited.

Families and community organizations also need practical support options that can work within the realities of rural settings and complement existing services.

What we set out to learn

1Can youth resilience-focused technology solutions be implemented successfully in rural community organizations, and what impact might they have?
2How do community and technology partners experience an AscendRural-facilitated pilot, and what can make future pilots stronger?

Our approach

Move from community need to real-world learning.

AscendRural sourced technology solutions, invited rural community organizations into the opportunity, created space for communities to choose what they wanted to test, prepared partners together, and supported a 90-day paid pilot with recurring feedback and post-pilot evaluation.

01Identify & DefineGround the work in community need.

Interviews with Central Minnesota community leaders validated the need for additional youth mental-health resilience supports in rural settings.

02SourceFind solutions with potential to address the need.

The Youth Resilience Challenge generated 46 applications. The top five technology companies were invited to pitch to a panel of judges, and two finalists were selected based on potential for impact.

46: applications
5: pitched to judges
2: finalists selected

03Match & AlignLet communities choose what fit their setting.

At the Technology Finalist Showcase, the two finalists pitched to community partners. Community partners then decided which solutions they wanted to pilot.

04PrepareBring community and technology partners together before launch.

A Pre-Pilot Summit brought community partners and technology finalists together to prepare for pilot launch and gather feedback before implementation.

05DemonstrateTest in real rural settings and learn in real time.

A 90-day paid pilot began in March 2025. Community and technology partners completed weekly pulse surveys, followed by post-pilot surveys and interviews. In May, community partners also decided whether to extend participation for six months.

Explore the AscendRural Rural Innovation Model →

The partners

Different organizations. Different settings. One shared learning process.

The pilot paired technology solutions with rural community organizations serving young people and families in different settings. That variation was essential to understanding where each solution fit, how implementation worked and what communities wanted to continue.

Community partners

5 organizations · tap a partner to read more

CentraCare – St. Cloud Hospital Clara’s House
A partial hospitalization program (PHP) serving children and adolescents ages 3–18 struggling with emotional and/or mental and behavioral difficulties.
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Selander Coaching & Consulting
Provides mental health awareness, suicide awareness, suicide prevention, and other societal education services to under-served and at-risk communities.
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The Brainerd Baxter Youth Center – The Shop
A non-profit charitable organization committed to providing community support to all teens and young adults as they transition into independence and adulthood.
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Smiles for Jake
Educates, offers resources, and provides response efforts aimed to challenge and change the stigma around mental health and suicide by building a culture of compassion, connection, and hope.
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Brainerd Family YMCA
A community hub providing programs and services which help develop strong and resilient youth, support healthy living and wellness, and create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.
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Technology partners

Selected as finalists from 46 applications

Supportiv
Anonymous, 24/7, live-moderated peer-support group chats and personalized resources for mental, emotional, social and daily-life struggles.
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PsycheCare
Tools, coaching and virtual peer support for parents of youth after a crisis.
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Evaluation

Feedback built in at every step.

The pilot used Technology Showcase, Pre-Pilot Summit, weekly pulse, extension and post-pilot surveys, along with partner interviews, to capture implementation experience, engagement and learning across the pilot. The independent evaluation was led by Jessica Lake, PhD.

Technology companies and community partners were paid for pilot participation.

The outcomes

Real-world experience created evidence everyone could use.

The 90-day pilot gave rural organizations and technology partners a structured environment to try new approaches, share feedback and learn together. The result was evidence not only about technology use, but about the conditions that influence successful implementation in rural communities.

106estimated unique Supportiv users across five community partners.
195Supportiv user sessions during the 90-day pilot.
4 of 5community partners using Supportiv chose to continue for a six-month extension.
100%of participating community and technology partners were reported as extremely likely to recommend working with AscendRural.

Supportiv usage metrics were estimated, not exact, because of logistical limitations including device sharing and platform anonymity.

A pilot designed to learn.

“It’s been really clearly communicated, which is interesting because when you’re piloting and it’s new, to be able to have clear communication is key, but yet, not an easy thing to do.”

— Community partner

“[AscendRural] would continue to reiterate … ‘we are not basing this on utilization. We’re just basing this on learnings. We want to learn.’”

— Technology partner

Evidence from real-world use

Five community partners chose to pilot Supportiv. Across those settings, estimated usage reached 106 people and 195 sessions, and four partners chose to continue for an additional six months. These figures offer one view of engagement, while the partner experience and implementation learnings show the broader value of the program.

Learning across different settings

The two technology solutions addressed different users and needs, and community organizations chose what they wanted to test. Those varied experiences gave AscendRural and its partners practical evidence about community choice, solution-setting fit, implementation support and the conditions needed to test technology meaningfully in rural settings.

What the work reinforced

What this work reinforced.

Fit shapes what is possible.

The pilot gave communities a meaningful choice in which approaches made sense for their organizations and the people they served. Those experiences reinforced that promising technology needs the right population, setting and implementation conditions to be meaningfully tested.

Alignment should begin before implementation.

Community and technology partners benefit from a shared understanding of the need, intended users, goals and success measures before a pilot begins. Earlier alignment creates a stronger foundation for implementation and evaluation.

Define meaningful engagement together.

Pilot-wide usage targets do not always reflect what success looks like in every community setting. Engagement goals are stronger when they are set collaboratively with community partners and connected to local context.

A learning orientation strengthens honest collaboration.

Partners valued AscendRural’s emphasis on learning and iteration. That approach helped create space to share challenges and adjust expectations rather than treating a pilot as a pass-fail test.

Rural context is part of technology readiness.

Technology partners reported that learning about rural communities through AscendRural and through the pilot itself was valuable, strengthening understanding of how to approach rural organizations and markets.

“I think specifically what we got from AscendRural in this regard was a better understanding of how to approach rural communities.”

— Technology partner

Practical implementation support matters.

Partner feedback highlighted the value of support around areas such as communicating a solution, tracking outcomes and structuring feedback loops. These are important parts of moving from an interesting technology to a workable community implementation.

Research & resources

Go deeper into the evidence.

Featured pilot report