We created the “Gym and Tracker for Mental Health” innovation out of a deep need we witnessed in the marginalized communities we work with, particularly among children and youth from De-Notified and Nomadic Tribal communities. These communities face high levels of trauma, exposure to violence, instability, and deep-rooted stigma around mental health. Yet, mental health care—especially preventive care—is practically non-existent or inaccessible.
Through years of engagement, we noticed that children showed signs of anxiety, social withdrawal, and behavior issues, yet rarely spoke about their feelings or sought help. Traditional counseling models did not always work—either due to stigma, lack of access, or cultural mismatch.
We realized that what children needed was not just a place to “fix problems,” but an ecosystem to build resilience before mental health issues escalated. That’s when the idea was born—to build a mental health gym, just like one goes to a physical gym to stay fit.
We began with art, music, and drama-based therapy sessions, led by trained community mental health facilitators. Simultaneously, we built a mental health tracker—a simple, gamified tool for children to reflect on their daily emotions, sleep, screen time, food intake, hydration, and social connection.
Our innovation empowers children and youth to take ownership of their mental wellbeing, make it part of daily routine, and speak about it freely.
In practice, our innovation — the Gym and Tracker for Mental Health — is a joyful, community-rooted program where children and youth build emotional resilience through daily mental fitness routines, much like physical fitness routines in a gym.
Here’s how it works:
1. Daily “Mental Fitness” Sessions
Children gather in safe, creative spaces within their schools or communities for interactive group sessions led by trained facilitators. These include:
Art therapy: Drawing emotions, visual journaling.
Music therapy: Singing, rhythm exercises, creating calming playlists.
Drama & play therapy: Role-playing, skits, storytelling to express emotions.
Movement therapy: Dance, yoga, breathing exercises to regulate energy and stress.
These sessions focus on building self-awareness, empathy, confidence, and communication skills in a fun, inclusive way.
2. Mental Health Tracker App
Each child uses a simple digital or paper-based Mental Health Score Tracker, asking questions like:
How did I sleep last night?
How much time did I spend on screen today?
Did I eat well and drink enough water?
Did I express myself to someone today?
What was my mood like? (Happy, sad, angry, calm, etc.)
Who or what am I grateful for today?
The tracker is designed to be gamified and visual, offering mood emojis, scoreboards, and personalized feedback. Children earn badges and rewards for building consistent, positive routines — much like health apps track steps or heart rate.
Our innovation, the Gym and Tracker for Mental Health, began as a pilot program within Ashraya’s education and mental well-being initiative in two communities of De-Notified and Nomadic Tribes. The overwhelming response from children, parents, and teachers validated its potential. Children began expressing emotions more openly, managing stress better, and even creating their own “mental health clubs.”
Here’s how it has been spreading:
1. Word of Mouth and School Integration
Teachers from neighboring schools witnessed the impact and requested training to implement the model in their settings. We conducted workshops for educators on integrating mental fitness routines and tracker tools into daily school life.
2. Community Demand
Parents reported noticeable changes in children’s behavior — improved focus, reduced aggression, and better communication — which created demand in other communities. This led to the organic expansion of the program to six additional communities.
3. Partnerships and Volunteer-Led Expansion
Local NGOs and community leaders began adopting the model in their programs after receiving facilitator training from Ashraya. We created a simplified toolkit (in local languages) to make replication easier.
4. Digital Tracker Prototype
We aspire to develop a beta version of our Mental Health Score Tracker app by this year, allowing for better reach throughout the world.
5. Policy Advocacy with the government - conversations with educational policymakers.
We have continued to evolve our innovation based on community feedback, pilot learnings, and expert consultation.
1. From Journaling to Technology:
Before the development of the digital mental health tracker app, we began with a simple, analog approach — encouraging children and youth to maintain daily journals tracking key well-being indicators: sleep hours, emotional check-ins, food and water intake, screen time, and social interactions. This not only improved self-awareness but gave us valuable insight into user behavior. Based on this, we are now designing a mobile app that will integrate Artificial Intelligence to personalize recommendations, track trends over time, and gamify progress for better user engagement.
2. Structured Therapy Integration:
Initially, art, drama, and music sessions were conducted as informal creative expression workshops by volunteers. Based on the overwhelmingly positive response, we formalized the model by hiring certified therapists, conducting a pilot in two communities, and co-developing a structured curriculum rooted in local culture.
3. Data-Informed Refinement:
We introduced a mental health baseline and endline assessment tool and began collecting anonymized data to measure progress.
4. Peer-Led Support Circles - In response to children expressing a need to "talk to someone like me," we introduced peer support groups and trained older adolescents to facilitate check-ins, inspired by peer-to-peer mental health movements.
If you want to try this innovation, it's simple and flexible to get started:
1. Start with the Well-being Tracker Journal:
Begin by using our Mental Health Tracker template, which helps individuals reflect daily on their emotional well-being, sleep quality, screen time, nutrition, hydration, and social connections. We can share a printable or digital version to get started immediately — this works great in schools, youth groups, or even at home.
2. Access the Therapy Toolkit:
You can request our starter toolkit which includes activities from our art, music, and drama therapy modules. These are easy-to-follow guides created by trained mental health professionals and adapted for non-specialist facilitators like teachers or youth leaders.
3. Join or Start a Pilot:
If you represent an organization or school, we can help you pilot the full program — including support circles, tracking tools, and curated group therapy sessions. We provide orientation, materials, and remote support to help you implement it in your context.
4. Partner with Us on the App Rollout:
As we build our mobile app, we’re looking for partners (schools, nonprofits, educators, mental health professionals) to test early versions and co-develop content suited to different regions and cultures. Let us know if you’d like to collaborate!
Just reach out to us at ashrayainitiative.org and we’ll help you customize the approach for your setting.
