Clayful: give every kid someone to talk to ft. Maria Barrera

Accelerated by a global pandemic, youth are experiencing a mental health crisis unlike anything we've seen before.

• There aren't enough clinical providers. For every 1,200 students there's only one school psychologist.
• Lack of providers makes support inaccessible. Costs are high and waitlists are as long as 4-6 months
• Support is reactive rather than proactive. Students don't get help until they reach a breaking point
• Educators are burnt out. There's not enough support & educators are feeling the burden

Clayful provides coaching for every student - when & where they need it. We chat with founder Maria Barrera about:

• Maria's experiences as an immigrant from Colombia 
• What it takes to get schools admin, teachers, counselors, parents, and students onboard 
• The financial incentives that make it possible for schools to provide Clayful 
• The importance of providing support, not advice - and the inspiration behind this intention
• How to measure success and what to optimize for -  "We want to reach more kids - but we also want to build their own capacity to coach themselves. If we design for daily use, does that mean we become a crutch? How do you define value? If one session changes a kid's life, is that enough?"

About Maria
Maria ran her first coaching session when she was 15. 

Then as a tutor, and now as founder of Clayful, Maria has always found joy in coaching others through everyday life stressors and challenges. This led her to start a tutoring company while getting her engineering degrees at Stanford University, to leading growth, product, and marketing at edtech leader Nearpod, and to being a part of the early team at HR-focused, a16z-backed, ChartHop. 

Now, she is building Clayful to be the support she wished she had had (and that would have saved her lots in therapy bills!). With Clayful, kids have access to personalized resources that improve their mental wellness, regardless of socio-economic status.

Follow Maria:

• LinkedIn 
• Twitter

Follow Clayful, and bring Clayful to your school;

• LinkedIn 
• Instagram 
• Twitter 
• www.clayfulhealth.com

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