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Register now to join Tufts CTSI and the ADAPT coalition for the 10th Annual ADAPT Community Health Symposium, “Youth at the Forefront: Mental Health, Belonging, and Digital Wellness.”

This in-person only event will be held on Friday, October 30, 2026, from 8:30AM-2:15PM EST, at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Young people across Massachusetts are facing growing challenges to their mental health, well-being, digital wellness, and sense of belonging. These challenges are often compounded for youth from multilingual and multiethnic communities, where systemic barriers, stigma, and historically limited access to resources contribute to disparities in well-being and access to care. The 10th ADAPT Community Health Symposium brings together youth workers, researchers, clinicians, educators, community-based organizations, and other partners to explore these challenges and innovative approaches to fostering belonging, amplifying youth voice, and expanding access to support. The symposium reflects Tufts Medicine’s commitment to the local communities it serves across Greater Boston, including Boston’s Chinatown, Dorchester, Quincy, Malden, and Lowell, which are home to many multilingual, multiethnic, and Asian communities.

Through panels, breakout discussions, and networking, attendees will:

  • Explore emerging research and community perspectives
  • Learn from promising programs, innovative practices, and youth-centered approaches
  • Strengthen cross-sector partnerships and sustainable systems of support that promote youth mental health, well-being, resilience, belonging, and digital wellness

 

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) language interpretation will also be available for attendees.

 

Details

Friday, October 30, 2026, 8:30AM-2:15 PM EST
Tufts University School of Medicine | Center for Medical Education, Room #114 | 145 Harrison Ave. — Chinatown, Boston

 

Flyer

Download and share the English language version and translated version!

Visit the translated version of this event page.

 

Registration

Researchers and community members are encouraged to attend. 

Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) language interpretation will also be available for attendees. 

Space is limited! Registration is now open.

 

Agenda

8:30AM–9:15AM

Registration and Breakfast

 

9:15AM–9:35AM

Welcome and Opening Remarks

MyDzung Chu, ADAPT Director, Tufts CTSI 

Dawn Sauma, ADAPT Co-Chair; Co-Executive Director, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) 

 

9:35AM–10:45AM

Panel 1 – Gaps, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned: Hearing from Youth Workers

This panel will explore challenges and resilience factors impacting youth health and well-being, share innovations and lessons learned from work addressing these challenges, and reflect on the systems of support youth would like to see going forward.

Moderator: Mina Kim, Executive Director, Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition 

Catherine Le, Program Coordinator, Asian Women for Health 

Ashley Jin, Youth Programs Associate – Chinatown, Asian Community Development Corporation 

Annabel Shu, Youth Organizer, Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition 

Billy Zeng, Program Coordinator of Dorchester Organizing and Training Initiative, Asian American Resource Workshop 

 

10:45AM–11:00AM

Break

 

11:00AM–12:05PM

Concurrent Breakout Groups

Group 1: Re-Imagining Mental Health Care Access and Support for Youth

Samara Grossman, Director, Center for Behavioral Health and Wellness, Boston Public Health Commission 

Zoe Liu, Family Connector, BCNC 

Catherine Vuky, Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology Department and Director, Asian Mental Health Concentration, William James College 

 

Group 2: Civic Leadership and Spaces of Belonging

Demond Hill, Assistant Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University 

Go Sasaki, Research Associate, Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts – Boston; Co-Chair, Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association

Lily Song, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and the School of Public Policy and Urban Planning, Northeastern University 

 

12:05PM–12:50PM

Lunch and Networking

 

12:50PM–2:00PM

Panel 2 – Youth Digital Wellness, Social Media, and AI

Experts across sectors will share challenges impacting youth’s digital wellness and mental health, ways to foster healthy digital communities, and cross-sector opportunities to build sustainable systems of support.

Moderator and full speaker list coming soon.

 

2:00PM–2:15PM

Summary and Closing Remarks

 

 

Thank you to our Symposium planning committee (Dawn Sauma, ADAPT Co-Chair and Co-Executive Director, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence; Ben Hires, CEO, BCNC; and Tsung Mou, Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine), as well as our Tufts CTSI Professional Education team and Communications Manager, for all of their work on this event.

This event is provided free of charge, and was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of health, Award Number UM1TR004398. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.