​Welcome to Project YES!

Youth Empowerment & Support


​Project YES ​(Youth Empowerment & Support) offers free, anonymous, brief, self-guided mental health tools for teens. YES empowers teens to learn new ways of dealing with stress while helping others do the same.

Project YES was designed with teens (ages 11-17) in mind, but people of all ages are welcome to try the tools in Project YES, anywhere and anytime. 
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Project YES is run by scientists at the Lab for Scalable Mental Health, with partners at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Miami, Lebanese American University, and Ankara University.

YES Advice Center | YES User Guide | Clinical Research


​​There are 3 steps to Project YES.


​Step 1: Choose an activity. Try one of four ​20 minute programs​​, designed to support mental health.


​​Step 2: Tell us what you think. Before and after each activity, we will give you the option to answer some questions about your mood, your thoughts, and what you thought of the activity. 


​Step 3: Share your advice with others. Share your best advice for others who may be struggling, and see it posted on this page ​for others to see!

Click HERE to read advice we've already received from teens! 

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​Video Guides for Project YES Users

Clinical Research: ​Peer-Reviewed Publications



​A Digital Single-Session Intervention Platform for Youth Mental Health: Cultural Adaptation, Evaluation, and Dissemination
Shroff et al., 2023, JMIR Mental Health
Funded by the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District

Spanish- and English-speaking teens in San Antonio, Texas who completed a culturally-adapted version of Project YES (N = 894, ages 11-17) reported significant improvements in hopelessness, self-hate, perceived control, and agency, regardless of which single-session intervention they completed. Results show that Project YES is an acceptable, useful support for English-and Spanish-speaking San Antonio youth.

Read the Full Study Here
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​A Randomized Trial of Online Single-Session Interventions for Adolescent Depression during COVID-19
Schleider et al., 2022, Nature Human Behaviour
Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health

In a nationwide randomized trial during COVID-19 (N = 2,452 teens, ages 13-16), two of the online single-session interventions in Project YES (Project Personality; ABC Project) significantly reduced depression symptoms, hopelessness, anxiety, and restrictive eating 3 months later (ps < .001), compared to a supportive control. 

Read the Full Study Here
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Acceptability and Utility of an ​Open-Access, Online Single Session Intervention Platform for Adolescent Mental Health
Schleider et al., 2020, JMIR Mental Health
Funded by the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director

Teens who took part in Project YES (N = 187, ages 11-17) reported significant improvements in hopelessness, self-hate, perceived control, and agency (ps < .001), regardless of which single-session intervention they completed. Users rated all programs as acceptable (eg, enjoyable, likely to help peers).

Read the Full Study Here
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Associations of LGBTQ+ Identities with Acceptability and Efficacy of Online Single-Session Youth Mental Health Interventions 
McDanal et al., 2021, Behavior Therapy
Funded by the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director

LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ youth who took part in Project YES (N=258, 60.5% LGBTQ+, 47.3% youth of Color) reported equal benefits across all clinical outcomes (hopelessness, self-hate, perceived control, agency). Additionally, LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ youth found Project YES equally acceptable and helpful.

Read the Full Study Here
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For questions about Project YES, or inquiries about using intervention materials for non-commercial purposes, please contact Jessica Schleider, Ph.D.

Project YES was classified as 'non-human subjects research' by the Institutional Review Board review (as a program evaluation) by the Office of Research Compliance at Stony Brook University (IRB2019-00496). The Office of Research Compliance may be contacted at +1 631-632-9036.

All materials related to Project YES (Project Personality; The ABC Project; Project CARE) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

You are free to copy, distribute, adapt, or build upon materials from Project YES for non-commercial purposes only, so long as you cite our materials, provide a link to the license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor(s) endorses you or your use.