Youth mental health challenges have been a long-standing concern for communities, exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as young people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer, face more barriers to accessing mental health resources.
Increasing access to culturally responsive, diverse mental health workers and healers is a critical strategy to address these barriers.
Best Starts collaborated with MIDD to launch a new funding opportunity to ensure young people can access culturally responsive support from providers and healers who share their experiences and background: Centering Diverse Healers for Youth Well-Being.
We are excited to announce the seven awardees who will take on this work! This project centers diverse communities in entering, accessing support and resources, and increasing representation within the broader youth mental health and healing fields.
The Seven Awardees for the Centering Diverse Healers for Youth Well-Being funding opportunity:
- Black Star Line
- We are Comunidad
- Deconstructing the Mental Health System Inc
- Goodfoot Arts Collective
- Mente
- The Therapy Fund Foundation
- WA-BLOC
Black Star Line
“Black Star Line will be supporting African Diasporan Healers who use African-centered and traditional African healing practices. We understand their work is marginalized yet proves to be essential to the Black community. Caregiving for the caregivers is Black Star Line’s offering to honor, replenish, and develop our community’s healers,” said Mayet Dalila, Co-Founder.
Dalila included a quote from Ayi Kwei Armah with Osiris Rising:
“Over these disastrous millennia there have been Africans concerned to work out solutions to our problems and to act on them.”
We are Comunidad
“Comunidad integrates mental health practices into its cultural and leadership programs, creating opportunities for healing and acceptance while directly confronting systemic oppression and generational trauma. Through conversations with over 1,000 Latinos each year across King County, both in rural and urban areas, Comunidad has identified mental health as a top priority, particularly for youth.
Youth Conectores Training
We will train a new cohort of youth, called ‘Conectores,’ in basic mental health principles, emphasizing how to approach these practices through a lens of cultural richness. This training program builds leadership skills and mental health awareness among youth, preparing them to serve as culturally informed advocates. By creating this pipeline of young leaders, we aim to increase the diversity of future mental health providers who can meet the specific needs of Latino communities. These youth will also apply our tested organizing skills to research and interview leading BIPOC therapists, seeking solutions to better connect Latinos with the expertise they need. Comunidad is excited to continue our decade-long tradition of integrating mental health into all we do, shifting the systems that create trauma.” said Cynthia Ramos Orozco, Co-Lead Organizer of Comunidad
Deconstructing the Mental Health System Inc (DMHS)
“DMHS will be expanding and growing services to provide educational and supportive environments such as support groups, internship, supervision and trainings for students and professionals who specialize in providing mental health therapy and support for youth and families. We currently provide workshops for professionals, and now we’ll be able to offer in-house supervision and mentorship (instead of contracting out) for consistent support of Therapists who work hard to heal our communities! Our vision is not only growth, but long-term retention so children and families benefit from high quality and consistent care.
DMHS does everything through and with the community, so to collaborate with Best Start for Kids, an organization whose mission is to support families and help them thrive because healthy families create healthy communities. Our missions intersect beautifully, especially since we work predominantly with mental health providers at various stages of their careers (from student to professionals). We have a unique opportunity to expand and support the workforce who will have a direct impact on youth and families that Best Start for Kids serves.” said DMHS President Makinie Fortino, LMFT.
Good Foot Arts Collective
In their application, the Good Foot Arts Collective described the purpose of their plan:
“The work we do is rewarding and invigorating, but it is intense. The people we hire to support our BIPOC youth share lived experiences with them, which gives them a grounding for building trusted relationships with youth. But it also means that they, like our young people, have issues and challenges that they manage in their own lives, from caregiving for older relatives to having to address pains like domestic violence to traumas navigating the world as BIPOC people.
We want to break the cycle in our sector of high staff turnover and low retention, burnout and resentment in work that should also feel hopeful, empowering and rewarding. Giving our staff an occasional day off or access to mindfulness resources are helpful, but being able to meaningfully create space that centers health, wellness and rejuvenation for staff requires more intention.”
Mente
“Mente was built with the healing and nourishing of community and families in mind. We are committed to honoring and elevating the importance of celebration and true wellness. We are uniquely interested in restoring and uplifting our community of QTBIPOC healers who offer so much of themselves, but often are not properly recognized by the systems that they interact with. We are filled with hope and vitality by the opportunities that exist ahead and look forward to building multiple resources for our emerging healers and existing healers to find community, comfort, celebration, and belonging. We belong to each other and we look forward to caring for each other in community.
Mente is deeply committed to uplifting wholeness and wellness in our community. As a community of creative healers, we have so many exciting hopes for our partnership with Best Starts for Kids! We are looking forward to fully honoring our mission and values in a sustainable way so that we can extend more healing conversations to our community of families and fellow professionals,” said Martha Aguiñiga, Mente Director.
The Therapy Fund Foundation
“The Therapy Fund Foundation is dedicated to ‘eliminating barriers to healing Black communities’ by providing free mental health services, education, and advocacy to those who have been historically excluded throughout the diaspora. Our mission addresses the impacts of systemic oppression, economic hardship, and intergenerational trauma, ensuring access to culturally responsive clinicians who practice with an anti-racist lens. We are most excited to be able to support Thrive and empower as there are only 4% Black clinicians throughout the entire U.S. and we need to retain them so there is sound culturally responsive care available for children and families,” said Ashley McGirt with The Therapy Fund Foundation.
WA-BLOC
“Through this partnership, WA-BLOC is excited to launch two programs to support recruitment and retention for queer, Black, and brown healers serving our public school communities!
Our Healers’ Collective will be a cohort series aimed at nurturing a sense of belonging and fostering collaborative learning among school-based social workers, restorative justice (RJ) practitioners, counselors, and other healers. Participants will be able to explore and develop their skills in a liberation-centered, collaborative community with other queer and Black and brown practitioners – who are otherwise spread across our heavily-siloed school system.
Our Restorative Justice Fellowship Program will create a career pathway for queer, Black, and Brown college-aged young adults who are passionate about liberatory education, youth mental health, and restorative practices in school settings. This program will provide them with valuable hands-on experience as Restorative Justice Practitioners in schools. Fellows will begin their journey with WA-BLOC during our summer Freedom Schools program and continue into the school year, where they will be paired with seasoned RJ practitioners at various school sites to gain experiential learning opportunities and facilitate healing and restorative supports for K-12 youth.
We are so excited to receive support that will allow us to continue nourishing our community of Restorative Justice practitioners in Seattle Public Schools. We hope these programs will continue to fortify the Restorative Justice community across Seattle and beyond to support the agency and liberation of queer, Black and brown kids everywhere.” said Mari Ramirez (he/him/el), WA-BLOC Restorative Justice Practitioner.
