We believe the best way to accomplish our vision is to share power with young people, let them take the lead and be open to thinking differently. This project gives young people with Black and Black mixed-race heritage a seat at the table, and an opportunity to redesign the mental health systems that support them.
Team Engage set out with the aim to engage frontline practitioners in creating culturally competent mental health services and support. Their aim is to create a digital resource to be utilised by GP’s that provides training in cultural awareness. The resource will include videos of personal experiences, in addition to signposts to different organisations which raise awareness about these issues.
Team Change set out to influence the attitudes towards young Black people’s mental health and improve the communication on mental health within the Black community, whilst giving young people a voice. Their aim is to host creative change workshops for young Black men and women aged 18-25. These workshops will give young Black people a voice when it comes to talking about their mental health, create a safe space and educate young Black people about the stigmas within the Black community.
Not so micro (NSM) are campaigning to reform policy for school teaching qualifications to include microaggression as a mandatory element of a teaching qualification. They aim to educate teachers about microaggressions; subtle, everyday racist remarks or actions that over time, evidence shows, can have an impact on the mental health of people from racialised communities. They aim to partner with organisations already engaging in anti-racist training and connect them to schools that need it. Learn more about NSM
Verity is a new podcast that aims to bring together practitioners, specialists and survivors of sexual abuse who can give deeper insight into mental health and how to deal with sexual assault. This podcast will allow listeners to know that they are not abnormal in their thoughts or life experiences by bringing knowledge and understanding to their listeners and giving them options and choices over what works best for them.
The group hosted an all-day event with young people from schools in their area and their teachers to raise awareness of mental health among Black and racialised communities, and to discuss some of the causes behind this. They had a number of specialist and expert speakers with interactive workshops as well as providing a platform to young people themselves to talk about their challenges in an open forum. 35 young people attended.
The group created and published a three-part podcast series that hosted conversations with experts in supporting Black and racialised communities struggling with mental health. These episodes looked at personal examples and stories, as well as what services are/aren’t doing to help. The focus of these episodes was to look at the issue from an intersectional lens and to give young people a chance to have their voices heard on the subject.
This group held an awareness event offering peer to peer support at a local hair salon, a safe space for young women in the community to meet and talk. The salon offered to braidhair in different styles whilst the group spoke about the importance of mental health and how to access support. The group also created a takeaway resource ‘goodie bag’ for all attendees. This goes alongside their Sisterhood Salon campaign on social media – a space for young Black women to explore issues around identity, relationships and mental health all expressed through our hair.
This project began with a presentation to the leadership team, members of the youth club and local police officers. The group spoke passionately about their personal experience of growing up on an estate and the impact of the lack of facilities on their mental health. Theyare now putting their campaign into action with a petition to gain community support to improve access to outdoor and sporting facilities.
This group have chosen a health campaign to focus on raising awareness and discussing the various issues and stigma surrounding mental health in the Black community. By creating a TikTok account and sharing informational slides and videos, the group want to bring to light these matters and let young people know the resources available to them.
