Integrating School-based and Out-of-School Supports for Youth Mental Health: A Liberatory Design Approach

Rising mental health concerns among youth are widely reported with growing disparities in outcomes and access among racially and ethnically minoritized youth (Hoffman et al., 2022). Although evidence-based school- and out–of-school time (OST) program interventions show promise for reducing mental health concerns, promoting positive mental health of youth, and expanding access, the effectiveness of programs to equitably support students is limited, in part, because of limited coordination of services across settings (Authors et al., 2025). This perspective piece provides an example of how Liberatory Design can be used as a research tool to address complex systems-level challenges such as integrating school mental health and OST systems to improve access, quality, and equity of mental health supports for youth. Drawing on our year-long, collaborative design process, we detail our approach to many of the key stages of Liberatory Design, demonstrating how we partnered with community-experts (e.g., youth, mental health providers, OST staff, researchers) to define the problem of limited school and OST coordination and co-develop solutions. This example illustrates how Liberatory Design can serve as a practical, equity-centered research methodology for developing sustainable, systems-level solutions to pressing challenges.