Elevating Youth Development

Speak Out: the Impact of Race and DEI on Mental Health

Elevating Youth Development is a series of powerful community forums hosted by Youth INC and Hello Insight on navigating the intersectionality of race, DEI, and mental health and its impact on youth, organizations, and the community. Youth, youth workers, executive leaders and funders engaged in a series of authentic conversations sharing their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned in their work.

YOUTH SPEAK OUT

The Impact of Race and DEI on Mental Health

Youth Speak Out is the first in a series of community forums hosted by Youth INC and Hello Insight entitled Elevating Youth Development: A Series of Discussions about the Impact of Race and DEI on Mental Health Across the Nonprofit Sector.
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Youth speakers, Jimmie Casamajor, Read Alliance, Alana Taylor, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, Esther Valet, Opening Act, and Ebony Woods, National Academy Foundation, shared their experiences of stress, isolation, and depression throughout the pandemic and the ongoing racial tensions in the country. They also told inspiring stories of youth workers who took time to check in with them and support their emotional well-being.

"We want to make sure that mental health is seen as something that is as important as physical health, and facilitating those conversations."
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Alana Taylor, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy
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YOUTH WORKERS SPEAK OUT

The Impact of Race and DEI on Mental Health

Youth Workers Speak Out featured frontline staff, Makeda Abraham, Opening Act, Caleb Alcime, Guitars Over Guns, Lisa Killingsworth, Read Alliance, Ana Meza, ROSE Community Development, and Jeremiah Thompson, Opening Act, shared their experiences working in the nonprofit sector throughout the pandemic and shared stories of the delicate balance between taking care of their own social and emotional well-being while supporting that of young program participants.

Doing the Necessary Work

"If you don’t do the work you won’t be in a position to help or serve anyone. So it is a really scary position to be in but I put my big girl panties on and that is essentially what we have to do."
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- Makeda Abraham, Opening Act

Power of Musical Expression

"Everybody knows a song can express how you feel when you don’t have the words to say it."

- Caleb Alcime, Guitars Over Guns

Creating Brave Spaces

"So, I always try to give a space for silence when working with young people because when you are trying to fill time with alot of words it doesn’t give youth a lot of time to process their feelings and to figure out what they want to say."

-Lisa Killingsworth, Read Alliance

Having Brave Conversations

"How can we expect young people to be open and vulnerable with us, if we as adults are not willing to be open and vulnerable with them."
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- Ana Meza, ROSE Community Development

Being a
Light for Others

"I needed to be a light for myself. I needed to be friends with the person who I look at in the mirror every day. Because if I can't do that for myself how can I do that for a young person?"

- Jeremiah Thompson, Opening Act, New York, NY

FUEL SERIES WORKSHOPS

Black, Latinx, and Asian American and Pacific Islander New Yorkers are less likely to be connected to mental healthcare than White New Yorkers. Among youth with mental health needs, males are less likely to be connected to mental health across all races and ethnicities.
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NYC Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health

R-SQUARED PEER GROUPS

73,000 New York City public high school students report feeling sad or hopeless each month. Persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness is a common predictor of depressive illness.

NYC Thrive

BOARD ENGAGEMENTS

The consequences of failing to address adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.

World Health Organization

EXECUTIVE LEADERS SPEAK OUT

The Impact of Race and DEI on Mental Health

Executive Leaders Speak Out, the third community forum in a galvanic series, convened Michael DeVaul, YMCA of the USA, Susan Natacha Gonzalez, Fresh Youth Initiatives, Priya Mohabir, New York Hall of Science, La Frae Sci, Willie Mae Rock Camp, Kelli Stewart, L.E.A.D Center for Youth and Joshua Todd, Camp Fire Columbia for a powerful conversation on navigating the intersectionality of race, DEI, and mental health and its impact on youth, staff, organizations, and the community.

KEY tAKEAWAYS

Explore New Ways to Listen

"Don’t minimize. These are the times that we really can’t minimize what we are hearing. You have to build a culture with your youth practitioners to listen."

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- Michael DeVaul, YMCA of the USA

Create Informal Ways to Check In

"Listening to youth doesn’t always happen in formal settings or in structured times. Significant disclosures can happen in really small moments. We must be attentive in the formal and informal spaces and times."
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- Susan Natacha Gonzalez, Fresh Youth Initiatives

Make Mistakes
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"We are all learners in a space and that we are all contributing to the learning of each other. Learning never stops. It is not about perfection, it is about intentionally looking at our progress.

- Priya Mohabir, New York Hall of Science (NYSCI)

Focus on Wellbeing

"We started to add intentional breathing to open each class session. We have also given our students some tools around raising their frequency and curating their vibe. During the COVID pause we created healing spaces using sound."
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- La Frae Sci, Willie Mae Rock Camp

Show up as Your Full Self

"We [check-in] religiously with each other as staff but also with our young people because everyone is not having the same experience here in America."

- Kelli Stewart, L.E.A.D. Center for Youth

Show up as Your Full Self

"I have to remind folks that just because I come to a decision, or I have an idea, it is framed by my experience and my experience is not the same as everybody else's. I’m having a different experience."

- Joshua Todd, Camp Fire Columbia

"Mental health practices look different for our youth. There is an informal nature to the work that can make people devalue it. Listening to youth doesn't always happen in formal settings or in structured times. I have learned that there are some meaty and important moments that happen on the subway on the way to camp. It happens in really small moments."
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Susan Natacha Gonzalez, Fresh Youth Initiatives
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Self Reflection

"Reflect consistently on the consistency and logic on everything you do... ask yourself critical questions, challenge yourself."

- Roderick Jenkins, New York Community Trust
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Challenge Assumptions

"One size does not fit all, so don't get comfortable. Do the work, listen, learn, engage, validate, be authentic, ask questions so that you don't make assumptions"

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- Pamela Lawrence, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Community Love

How do we document the love that community organizations have for their community and the extra work that they're putting in? I'm guilty of overlooking this myself.
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- Albert Maldonado, The California Endowment

Confronting Truth

"We've got to be able to stand in our truth and be willing to step out and hold other foundations accountable"

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- Jackie Murphy, The Collins Foundation
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Transformative Conversations

"How much more can I push. How much more can we have these conversations... How can I bring that back what I am hearing and have conversations internally to make changes."
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- Jenny Negron, The Pinkerton Foundation
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Mental Health is Health

Lifting Mental Health Converstaions from Awareness to Action

On Mental Health Action Day, Youth INC proudly stood alongside 1,600 other companies, brands, nonprofits, and cultural leaders globally, to drive calls to action to address the surge of loneliness and isolation felt by young people resulting from the pandemic. 

To kick-off this important initiative we were joined by Erika Soto Lamb, MTV Entertainment Group, Lisa Killingsworth, Read Alliance, and our nonprofit partners LaFrae Sci, Willie Mae Rock Camp and Karim Couser, Youth Action YouthBuild, for the Nasdaq Opening Bell Ceremony.

The ringing of Nasdaq Opening Bell launched Youth INC’s Speak Out: Mental Health Is Health campaign aimed at destigmatizing mental health among young people and driving change through storytelling, mental health awareness, and access to resources. Our goal is to engage youth, youth workers, and the broader community across our platforms with content and activations that demonstrate everyone has the power to take action on mental health.

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Read the press release

Mental Health is Health

On Mental Health Action Day, Youth INC proudly stood alongside 1,600 other companies, brands, nonprofits, and cultural leaders globally, to drive calls to action to address the surge of loneliness and isolation felt by young people resulting from the pandemic. 

To kick-off this important initiative we were joined by Erika Soto Lamb, MTV Entertainment Group, Lisa Killingsworth, Read Alliance, and our nonprofit partners LaFrae Sci, Willie Mae Rock Camp and Karim Couser, Youth Action YouthBuild, for the Nasdaq Opening Bell Ceremony.

The ringing of Nasdaq Opening Bell launched Youth INC’s Speak Out: Mental Health Is Health campaign aimed at destigmatizing mental health among young people and driving change through storytelling, mental health awareness, and access to resources. Our goal is to engage youth, youth workers, and the broader community across our platforms with content and activations that demonstrate everyone has the power to take action on mental health.

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