DOE partners with NextStep Health Tech to launch GoodLife app

CONCORD- The New Hampshire Department of Education has partnered with NextStep Health Tech to launch GoodLife, a mobile application designed to build and strengthen student social and emotional resilience. The app allows students to join communities, set physical and emotional development goals, and send and receive positive feedback, all while preserving their anonymity online.

“We know that social media can exacerbate problems for young people struggling with the expected challenges of adolescence, and now the uncertainty of a public health emergency and isolation from their peers,” said Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. “GoodLife is designed to harness the power and connectivity of social media to build adolescent resilience, equipping young people to tackle anxiety, negativity and a host of other areas that can derail a young person, both online and in person.”

Features of the GoodLife app include:

• Setting and managing goals related to fitness, nutrition, mindfulness, and social engagement,
• Creating and joining communities around their interests like music, sports, food, the outdoors, animals, and more,
• Sharing video modules and positive messages with others to help spread positivity in their communities,
• Seeing Stories from others who have built skills to manage daily stressors and navigate adversity in positive ways,
• Learning about different resilience principles like empowerment, support, commitment to learning, positive identity, and more.

NextStep was founded by University of New Hampshire graduate Sam Warach in response to the passing of his older brother from a prescription drug interaction from medications he was prescribed. Warach launched NextStep while he was a student at the University of New Hampshire soon after he became a Stanford University Innovation Fellow. Warach still has close ties to UNH, and many of NextStep’s team members are UNH alumni. The GoodLife app is built on the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents, a list of research-based, positive experiences and qualities that influence young people’s development, helping them become caring, responsible, and productive adults. The application anonymizes the identity of users, and does not collect any personally-identifiable information.

“We are proud to partner with the NH Bureau of Student Wellness and Department of Education to ensure that all students across New Hampshire and their families have access to evidence-based resilience cultivation tools through GoodLife,” said Warach. “We combine evidence-based research with empathetic-design and gamification to meet youth where they already are — on their mobile devices — at a time when traditional education models and social infrastructure have been disrupted globally.”

NextStep GoodLife is available free through Google Play and the Apple App Store. For more information, go to https://nextstepgoodlife.com. 
Reporters interested in a demonstration of the app should contact Grant Bosse at grant.bosse@doe.nh.gov or (603) 513-3030.