The problem
Young people's mental health is declining, and support isn't reaching them
Almost 1 in 2young Europeans aged 15 to 24 report unmet mental healthcare needs.
- Around one in five young people live with a diagnosable mental disorder, and the numbers are rising.
- Waits for specialist youth mental healthcare often run to months or years. Spending goes to acute care, while prevention and early support stay under-resourced.
- Between school and specialist care sits a large 'missing middle', where too little youth-friendly support exists.
That middle is where HeroChat is built to work: close to young people's lives, alongside care, never instead of it.
Two obstacles stand in the way
Getting started
Activation
Young people don't seek help. Stigma, denial and feeling alone stop them from taking the first step.
Keeping going
Motivation
Real change happens between sessions, and that is exactly where people drop out. Like the gym on January 1st.
Why sport
Sport already reaches the young people other services miss
Identity
Being part of a club gives young people a sense of who they are.
Belonging
A team is a place where they are not alone.
Role models
Athletes they look up to make asking for help normal. Even heroes struggle, and work through it.
The solution
HeroChat: built to be a coach, not a companion
Blended coaching. Your coaches run the programme; an AI coach supports each young person in between and afterwards. It doesn't try to be their friend. It helps them take the next step.
Always on
There between sessions and after the programme ends, with no waitlist.
Personal
It follows each young person's own goals, progress and pace.
In their language
It uses what they love, from films and games to their favourite players, for examples and metaphors that make an idea land.
I love The Lord of the Rings. Lately I just feel alone.
Frodo felt that too, and he found Sam. Who could be your Sam this week?
From conversation to practice
Most chatbots talk. HeroChat is designed to make the learning stick.
- Screenshot: a guided exercise with the AI coach
1Guided
The youth works through an exercise with the AI coach, for example how to stay calm before a match.
- Screenshot: a self-guided exercise to practice
2Self-guided
They take it into real life and practice it on the pitch, at school, at home.
- Screenshot: the coach overview
3Followed
The coach sees who is practicing and who needs attention, and where to step in.
Impact
Impact you can show, not just count
Programmes are mostly reported in headcounts and contact hours. Municipalities increasingly ask for more detail, without a clear standard yet. HeroChat is designed to measure the change itself.
Counted today
- Young people reached
- Contact hours
- One-off surveys, often a different one per funder
Designed to measure with HeroChat
- Follow-through: did they do what they planned?
- Outcomes compared with the start of the programme
- Follow-up 6 and 12 months after the programme, to see whether change sticks
Share it with funders
Designed to give subsidy providers and municipalities programme-level views. Never what a young person wrote.
Keep improving
Designed to show what works per programme and phase, so both the programme and the AI coach can improve.
No pilot has run yet. The dashboard shows synthetic demo data.
Safe by design
Small steps, little room to drift
Coaching is split into separate steps, each with a clear task and few degrees of freedom. That makes the AI coach more predictable and less likely to go off track.
Coach in the loop
Your coaches stay in charge. HeroChat supports them; it doesn't replace them.
Concerning messages are flagged
Messages a young person sends their coach are screened, and a worrying one is flagged for the coach.
Europe-first AI
HeroChat is designed to run on European AI infrastructure by default.
Privacy by design
Dashboards show progress, not what a young person tells the AI coach. A privacy policy, data processing agreement and guardian consent are being set up with our first partners.
HeroChat is in development.
Scale
Easier to start, easier to grow
Blended coaching is designed to let the same team give each young person more support, and reach more young people per coach.
Ready-made programmes
Start from a ready-made programme instead of building one from scratch: goals, phases, exercises and measures included.
MindStrong
Young people with mild stress or low confidence
FitForward
Young people at risk of dropping out of their sports club
OwnIt
Young people moving into work or study
Micro-learnings for coaches
Short lessons that prepare coaches to run a programme, and help them in the moment, for example when a young person's confidence drops.
Programmes and micro-learnings are shown as a concept in the demo.
What works today, and what's next
Working now
- 6 coaching strategies with 12 guided and real-world exercises
- Examples and metaphors drawn from each young person's favourites
- Coach and cohort dashboard (demo with synthetic young people)
- A help button that flags the coach
- Chat between young people and their coach, with concerning messages flagged
Planned
- Embedded impact measurement and funder reports
- Follow-up 6 and 12 months after the programme
- Ready-made programmes and coach micro-learnings
- Club branding and role-model heroes
- Safety escalation and guardian consent, required before any pilot
Work with us
We're looking for foundations to shape HeroChat with us. Tell us how you'd like to be involved.
Privacy notice: HeroChat contact form
Last updated: [CHECK: add date]
Who is responsible
This notice covers the HeroChat website and its contact form. The data controller is MindHacker (trade name, KvK 82.52.24.13, owned by Ad van den Oord, Grootveld 57, 5583 GH Waalre, The Netherlands).
Privacy contact: [email protected]
What this notice covers
Only the personal data you give us through the contact form on this website. HeroChat itself is still in development and is not offered as a service yet. When it is, the people using it and the organisations providing it will get their own privacy information and agreements.
What we collect and why
We use this data only to contact you about HeroChat. We do not add you to other mailing lists, we do not sell or share your data, and we do not use it to train AI models. The lawful basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), given by ticking the box on the form.
- Name, organisation and email address: to contact you about HeroChat, for example about a pilot or a session.
- Your answer to 'How would you like to be involved?' (optional): to understand whether you are interested in a pilot, a test session with your young people, a feedback session or updates.
How long we keep it
Until you ask us to delete it, or 2 years after our last contact with you, whichever comes first. [CHECK: confirm 2 years]
Who processes your data
- Tally hosts the form and stores your answers. [CHECK: confirm Tally's data location and sign their data processing agreement]
- Cloudflare hosts and delivers this website. Your IP address is processed to deliver and secure the site. Cloudflare is based in the US and works under Standard Contractual Clauses.
Cookies
This website sets no cookies for analytics or marketing. [CHECK: test the Tally embed for cookies; if it sets any, list them here and add a consent notice]
Who this form is for
The form is for professionals, such as coaches, foundations, schools and organisations. It is not meant for people under 18. If you think a young person has filled it in, email us and we will delete it.
Your rights
You can ask us for access to your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive a copy. You can withdraw your consent at any time, and this does not affect what we did before. Email [email protected]. We answer within 30 days and do not charge a fee.
Complaints
If you think we handled your data incorrectly, please contact us first. You can also complain to the Dutch supervisory authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl).
Changes
We update the date at the top when this notice changes.