Lessonbee Enhances Physical, Mental Health Literacy in Yonkers

The BCW’s Westchester Innovation Network (WIN) recently paired the technology company Lessonbee with the Yonkers Housing Authority (YHA) to provide Gen Z residents with wellness education.

As part of the WIN partnership, Lessonbee piloted its subscription-based content at one of YHA’s largest housing developments, a complex serving more than 1,700 families. Often, its young residents lack positive role models that can provide accurate health information.

“Young people have a lot of questions about their health and well-being and our tenants often don’t know where to turn to find that information,” said Wilson Kimball, President and CEO of YHA. “Lessonbee provided a safe space to deliver those answers.”

Lessonbee is an online education platform that provides health, social and emotional learning courses for millions of students. Lessonbee’s team met with social workers who work closely with YHA tenants to understand the community’s needs.

“While young people have long been under-served when it comes to health education, the pandemic escalated their need for health, social and emotional learning resources,” said Katie McPollom, Head of Content and Customer Success at Lessonbee. “Lessonbee provides confidence-building interactive lessons and relatable activities that can be disseminated across schools and organizations, from teachers and school psychologists to social workers, and easily accessed by students from their own digital devices.”

Through class participants, the Lessonbee team learned what learning formats resonated best with housing communities and how to best leverage existing community resources to reach young residents, address technology barriers, and enable access to content.

“This pairing accomplished two important goals. It delivered critical health information to the housing authority’s residents, and it helped Lessonbee refine its teaching platform,” said Dr. Marsha Gordon, the BCW’s president and CEO. “We look forward to matching more innovators that want to put their services in front of audiences with local partners that can provide valuable feedback.”

Can Your Business Benefit from WIN?

The Business Council of Westchester is committed to helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life through the support of its diverse business ecosystem in Westchester County through its WIN initiative. Its network is composed of small and mid-sized companies, professional services firms, and non-profits along with some of the most well-known brands in the world like IBM, Pepsico, MasterCard, Heineken, Danone, Morgan Stanley, and Regeneron. It also includes some of the largest hospitals and healthcare systems in the world and many colleges and universities.

To learn more about becoming an Innovation Partner or joining the WIN program, visit https://thebcw.org/westchester-innovation-network/.