Sources of Strength 2024-2025 Report

In collaboration with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) and NAMI Maine, MYAN supports the implementation of youth-led initiatives like Sources of Strength and related impact projects. Sources of Strength is a peer-led program that promotes mental wellbeing by developing strengths and strategies to work through life stressors. It is an evidence-based suicide prevention program which initially came to Maine in 2018. MYAN provides ongoing youth engagement support and technical assistance to adult advisors leading trained student groups in their school communities. These groups collaboratively create projects designed to reach the broader student body with an emphasis on strengthening individual and collective resiliency.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, the MYAN team worked with eight schools across the state who trained in the Sources of Strength program and subsequently completed projects and communication campaigns within their communities. This report highlights student leader and adult advisor voices from three of those school groups and showcases the personal impacts and larger ripple effects of the programming within each.

Pictured above is a ‘hidden viking note’ developed by the Vassalboro High School student group and shared throughout the school building for fellow students to find.

For more information about the Sources of Strength initiative or to get involved with future programming cycles, please contact our team.