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This Mother’s Day, many of us will honor the mothers in our lives. For some, that may include recognition to the nonparents in our village who helped raise us.

I was recently reminded of what building a village can look like in practice. My partner and his ex-wife share custody of his 14-year-old daughter (I’ll call her D). Recently, his ex-wife bought a ticket to a mother-daughter supper club scheduled for the week before Mother’s Day. When an inescapable work conflict came up, she offered me the ticket so I could take D instead.

As someone who has spent more than two decades working with young people and studying positive youth development, I immediately clocked that this was not just a casual invitation. I took it as an act of trust.

Being included matters. To be invited into a space typically reserved for a parent and to be trusted with a child you did not raise but deeply care about, communicates “I trust you and see you as part of this child’s support system.”

At a time when young people are experiencing worrisomely high rates of loneliness, these moments remind us of the specific actions that we as adults can take in their lives. At its core, the current youth mental........

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