When Kelley Coronado first learned about Youth Mental Health First Aid (Youth MHFA), the training felt personal before it became professional. Her son had been struggling after losing a close friend to suicide in sixth grade, and Coronado was searching for any tool that could help her better support him, her family and their community.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what to do when my son was struggling,” Coronado said. “I really struggled. I didn’t always respond in the best way.”
So, when she first took MHFA as part of her work with the Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP), she realized how well the training fits into her own life.
Now, as a certified Youth MHFA Instructor, Coronado brings her lived experience and deep empathy to every training — and the results are showing. Coronado has trained more than 3,000 First Aiders, and in April, she received the Youth MHFA Instructor of the Year award at MHFA Summit.
Even as a director balancing multiple programs and grants at AZYP, Coronado says Youth MHFA still sits at the core of her work.
“This is my why. If it wasn’t for Youth MHFA, honestly, I don’t think that I would have the passion in my job that I do.”
— Kelley Coronado
From the Classroom to Youth Mental Health First Aid
Before Coronado became a MHFA Instructor, she taught middle school, high school and community college, and she remembers seeing students struggle with their mental health long before she had language or tools to name what was happening.
“As a teacher, that was always hard for me because I would recognize signs and symptoms of someone struggling with their mental health,” she said. “But there was never any discussion about it.”
She knew students could not fully engage in class if they were carrying emotional pain or mental health challenges. Years later, when she joined AZYP, that classroom perspective became part of a larger mission.
Around 2018, AZYP was looking to expand its prevention programming and saw Youth MHFA as a natural fit. The organization already worked across prevention, diversion and intervention, including healthy relationship education, substance misuse prevention, youth shelters, street outreach and domestic violence prevention. Mental health training could offer another way to strengthen support around young people — and Youth MHFA was the perfect fit.
The training helps participants recognize signs and symptoms of a substance use or mental health challenge, interact with a young person in crisis and connect them with appropriate support.
Youth MHFA is designed for any adult who regularly interacts with young people ages 12-18, and for Coronado, that audience — any adult, not just parents — is essential. Parents matter deeply, but they are not the only adults who can notice when something changes.
“Oftentimes, teachers and individuals working with youth will spend more time with the youth than the parents,” Coronado said. “And it’s no fault of the parents. They’re working. The kids are in school; they have sports and activities after. So, teachers have to be trained, dance teachers need to be trained, coaches need to be trained.”
Building Stronger Communities in Arizona
Since AZYP started its Youth MHFA program, it has become a steady and highly requested part of their work. In fact, clients — schools, universities and other youth-serving organizations — are lining up to be trained.
“We really do not have to advertise anymore,” Coronado said. “We just stay booked and busy constantly.”
Coronado and her team travel throughout Arizona to deliver trainings and offer virtual cohorts each month. That reach matters in a state where rural communities may have fewer behavioral health resources.
Strong partnerships and sustainability are key to Coronado’s success. AZYP has built relationships with school districts, universities, community colleges and youth-serving organizations that invite the team back year after year.
School districts such as Tucson Unified School District and Sahuarita Unified School District ask Coronado’s team to train new teachers each year. Higher education partners have also become a major focus. Through Northern Arizona University, the team trains nursing students and has expanded to social work and sociology students, as well as satellite campuses and community colleges.
“They want us back every year,” Coronado said. “People realize our passion and that makes a huge difference because they know that we really care.”
How Youth MHFA Supports Young People
Coronado describes Youth MHFA as both practical and deeply human. The training gives participants a structure for responding while reminding them that every young person, relationship and situation is different.
“We break it down,” she said. “We’re mindful about what it looks like to listen nonjudgmentally or what it looks like to give reassurance and information, because that’s going to look differently depending on the situation, depending on the youth, depending on who you are to the youth, depending on the environment.”
Coronado’s teaching background helps her connect with educators who may recognize that a student is disengaged but not know what to do next. Before she was trained, she said, it was easy to interpret zoning out or not paying attention as a classroom management issue. Youth MHFA helped her see how behavior may reflect something deeper.
That doesn’t mean lowering expectations or ignoring accountability. Coronado emphasizes balance: adults can support resilience while also recognizing when a young person needs understanding, space or a different kind of approach.
“If they’re truly struggling with their mental health and we don’t address that, there’s no point in even teaching or facilitating because they’re not going to be able to learn,” she said.
She shared that one of her biggest challenges is reaching participants who do not initially believe they need mental health training or who question whether the young people in their care need that kind of support.
She approaches those moments with empathy.
“We only know what we know,” she said. “We all have mental health. And if we can, we might be that one person in the life of a youth who recognizes what’s happening and that can reach out and offer support. So why not be that one person?”
“We only know what we know. We all have mental health. And if we can, we might be that one person in the life of a youth who recognizes what’s happening and that can reach out and offer support. So why not be that one person?”
— Kelly Coronado
Lessons for Other Youth MHFA Instructors
Coronado’s advice to other Instructors begins with connection. MHFA training covers serious topics, including crisis situations, stigma and substance use. Creating an environment where participants feel safe enough to learn, ask questions and reflect is essential.
“Be human with them,” Coronado said, describing the advice she gives other Instructors. “I think that it’s so important to have that connection, even in the training, even if it’s a virtual training.”
For Coronado, that means listening closely to what participants are asking or sharing, building rapport early and modeling the same nonjudgmental listening skills participants are learning to use with others.
Another lesson she carries is that mental health support is not formulaic. The MHFA Action Plan gives First Aiders a consistent structure, but how that support looks will vary depending on the person, relationship and context.
“We all have our own experiences,” Coronado said. “And when it comes to mental health, there’s not one right answer.”
“We all have our own experiences, and when it comes to mental health, there’s not one right answer.”
— Kelly Coronado
That perspective also helps reduce stigma. Coronado often reminds participants that everyone has mental health. Someone may never receive a diagnosis and still experience poor mental health; someone with a diagnosis may also experience strong mental health. Everyone moves along a continuum, and everyone benefits when communities understand how to respond with compassion.
A Reason to Keep Showing Up
As she plans for the future, Coronado hopes to expand AZYP’s offerings to include Teen MHFA. She is also interested in developing family support specialist services that could help bridge gaps between behavioral health systems and families navigating youth mental health challenges.
That goal is rooted in her own family’s experience. When her son was struggling, Coronado remembers trying to find help, calling therapists who were not seeing adolescents or did not take her insurance, and spending nights researching what to do next. She wants families to have more support than that.
For her, Youth MHFA is part of a broader vision: Communities where more people can recognize when a young person is struggling, approach with care and connect them to support before families feel alone.
Coronado’s son is now 20 and doing well. Their family’s experience still shapes her commitment to Youth MHFA, not because the work is abstract, but because she knows how powerful it can be when an adult has the knowledge, confidence and compassion to respond.
“The training is just so powerful for parents and individuals working with youth,” she said. “I think that’s why I’m so passionate about it. Because it really helped me.”
That passion continues to ripple outward through every training, every partnership and every adult who leaves prepared to be “that one person” for a young person who needs support.
