Children’s mental health in the U.S. is on the decline. ChildFund’s No Pressure Zones help schools protect it.

A child spends time at a No Pressure Zone at her elementary school. These “safe spaces,” built by ChildFund in coordination with our U.S.-based local partner organization Communities in Schools, encourage children and youth to prioritize their mental health.

We tend to think of stress as an adult problem. If you remember anything about your own childhood, however, you know firsthand that simply being a young person comes with stresses of its own.

From worrying about grades in school to dealing with bullies to managing conflicts at home, children and teens experience plenty of stressors. This is truer than ever for today’s kids, who must deal with unprecedented challenges that can affect mental health – everything from social media use and online safety concerns to heartbreaking levels of exposure to mass gun violence.

Just like grown-ups, children need healthy ways to manage their stress and safe places where they can go to take the pressure off and prioritize their mental health. That’s the purpose of ChildFund’s No Pressure Zones, or NPZs.

These open-to-everyone spaces – complete with calm lighting, cozy furniture, positive messages and caring, trustworthy adults – are places where children can go at any point during their school day to take a mental health break. They’re a key part of ChildFund’s U.S. programs, and they’re helping change the way children and even schools think about mental health.

Why’s that so important, you ask? Well, put yourself in a child’s shoes – especially a child who may be growing up grappling with challenges related to poverty, violence or strife in the home.

“Sometimes our kids just come in, and home was crazy last night,” says Geancarlo Marti, a site coordinator at a Virginia middle school ChildFund supports through national nonprofit Communities in Schools (CIS). “They weren’t able to get any sleep because parents were arguing, or they had to stay up and watch their younger siblings because parents went to work. They come to school, and the first thing they do is get yelled at for not having their work done. Then they just feel like, ‘Well, if you only knew all night what I was dealing with.’”

A group of CIS and ChildFund staff members pause for a photo break while setting up an NPZ at a Virginia middle school. Each NPZ is stocked with items like sensory toys, books and information about breathing exercises to help students decompress.

Why social-emotional learning is key to youth mental health

The CIS mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. ChildFund partners with CIS in schools in the U.S. to help build NPZs and other safe spaces that protect students’ mental health and bolster socioemotional learning. We know that when children can share, process and regulate their emotions in healthy ways, they are much more likely to enjoy stronger relationships with others and more positive mental health outcomes. This is the foundation of what is commonly known as social-emotional learning.

Working in partnership with CIS, to date ChildFund has set up 70 NPZs in schools in the U.S. – 40 near our headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, and 30 as part of our sponsorship programs in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The NPZs serve approximately 4,000 children annually who visit them at various points during the school day to help them de-stress. Importantly, NPZs are staffed by CIS site coordinators, school social workers and counselors who are available to support children with challenges they may be facing at school or home. In Texas, these include AmeriCorps members who facilitate small-group social-emotional learning sessions in the NPZs.

“We have kids in and out of our office all day, whether or not they’re on our caseload, who utilize our space just to take a break or eat a snack or get some school supplies,” says Grey Gondella, another site coordinator at the local middle school. “Having this NPZ gives them an identifiable place to come and do that and take a break from the day and the stress of school and the stress of life that might be impacting their day.”

That’s more important now than ever as children across the country continue to report higher and higher rates of stress. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control reports that depression and anxiety have increased among children and youth over time, from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2011-2012. One study reported that 36.7% of adolescents ages 12-17 had felt “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in 2018-2019.

It makes sense that the NPZs, which provide access not only to a calming space but to a listening ear, are of particular importance to children who may be facing special challenges at school or home.

“Maybe it gives them a chance to write down a message to their teacher like, ‘Hey, I apologize for sleeping in class, but this is what I had to deal with last night, so it wasn’t anything personal,’” says Geancarlo. “It gives them a chance to take a step back on what may be hitting them at that moment and find some positive in the day or have someone to talk to just say, ‘Hey, that’s crazy that at your age you’re dealing with that. And it’s okay that it’s hard for you to deal with that. How can we help you? What do you think you need?’”

In cases of challenging student behavior, NPZs and other “mindfulness-based” social-emotional learning school interventions offer a science-backed alternative to more traditional methods of behavior change, like detention and other forms of punishment. For instance, American cities like Baltimore have seen success utilizing programs like “mindfulness rooms” rather than punitive practices to improve students’ mental health and, consequently, behavior and academic performance.

“A huge part of what we do is catching kids who need some intervention and education on social-emotional learning so that they can succeed in academics and other areas of life,” says Grey. “But until now, we didn’t have a designated space to do that. Giving kids a space where they can calm down and teachers can say, ‘Hey. Go visit Ms. G. in the No Pressure Zone and reset your emotions’ – that gives us the ability to reach those kids who wouldn’t necessarily have somewhere to go.”

The impact of No Pressure Zones on mental health

For all these reasons and more, Julia Campbell, U.S.  program manager for ChildFund, says that children’s mental health is increasingly becoming a priority for schools nationwide – and that NPZs are one way to encourage this way of thinking.

“Schools are wanting to be more trauma-informed and able to incorporate that into the entire school,” Julia says. “The idea is that by helping teachers and staff understand what kids are going through, it hopefully infiltrates the entire school environment.”

Feedback to date on the NPZs has been overwhelmingly positive. In an end-of-year evaluation at one elementary school, a staff member reported that students were able to access the NPZ throughout the day when they needed time to reset. “I also had lunch groups, as well as therapy dog groups, meet in the NPZ. Students had access to calming materials, weighted stuffed animals and music. I added a glider rocker and bean bag for students who need additional sensory input. The NPZ is a favorite spot at [our school]!”

And it’s not just children themselves who use and enjoy the NPZs. Teachers and other school staff – and even parents – use the space.

“Often, teachers need time to decompress,” the staff member continued. “The NPZ was always available to staff. Many afternoons, the area was used to debrief after a situation occurred that day. Other times, it served as a quiet place to chat and problem solve.

“When I meet with parents in the CIS room, we typically sit in the NPZ. It is comfortable and non-threatening, more like a living space than an office setting,” the staff member said.

Kids themselves reported loving the bean bags, fidget toys, colorful floor squares and especially the comfy couch. “This place is my favorite room in school!” one child exclaimed.

Elizabeth Stower, a program manager at the local chapter of CIS, says that one of the most impactful parts of the NPZ isn’t just what children experience there at school, but what they take with them back into the rest of their lives.

“The breathing exercises, the calming strips, the lessons that they’ll be learning here – to be able to use at home when they’re in those stressful situations, or when they’re out in the community, or when they’re in high school – we’re helping give kids the tools for their emotional toolbox,” she says. “We want them to use them here, but we also want them to use them out in real life.”

After all, so much of our mental health depends on our relationship to our own feelings and our sense of human connection – the understanding that someone knows about and cares about what happens to us.

“Kids come in here [to the NPZ] and it just gives them a chance to decompress and think about, ‘Well, there’s more left in the day than what has already passed. How can I still make the best of today?’” says Geancarlo. “It’s really just kind of meeting them where they are.”

Want to help support children's mental health in the U.S.? You can donate a No Pressure Zone through our Real Gifts Catalog.