A LETTER FROM OUR TEAM

At Closegap, our unwavering commitment to young people drives every decision we make about our digital platform. We believe deeply that children and adolescents deserve safe, nurturing spaces where they can develop emotional literacy and build meaningful connections with trusted adults. Our mental health check-in tool is designed with love and intentionality—creating an environment where students feel genuinely heard and supported, not surveilled or exploited. We reject the gamification or engagement-driven tactics that characterize many digital platforms targeting youth. Instead, we prioritize authentic connection and emotional growth, ensuring that every interaction serves the genuine wellbeing of the students we serve.

Central to our mission is our commitment to partnership and transparency with the communities we serve. We actively seek and incorporate feedback from parents, educators, and students themselves, recognizing that effective youth mental health support requires the voices of those closest to young people. Our Youth Advisory Council plays a vital role in shaping our platform, ensuring that student perspectives guide our product development and that we remain accountable to the needs and experiences of the young people using our tool.

We maintain our platform as a completely free resource, prioritizing distribution to high-need Title I schools where students face the greatest barriers to mental health support. Fundamentally, we believe children thrive when they have balanced lives that include outdoor play, face-to-face relationships, creative exploration, and physical activity. Our check-in is intentionally brief—taking just two minutes—because we want students spending their time building real-world connections and engaging with their communities, not consuming digital content. Technology should serve young people's development, not dominate it.