{"id":42206,"date":"2022-09-02T21:25:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T21:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=42206"},"modified":"2022-09-02T21:27:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T21:27:48","slug":"black-youth-want-to-improve-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/black-youth-want-to-improve-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Youth Want To Improve Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local faith group is helping Black Indianapolis youth learn about politics and empowerment. The eight young people in the first cohort of\u00a0Faith in Indiana<\/a>\u2019s Black Youth Collective fellowship program are using the experience to advocate for more mental health awareness in the city.<\/p>\n

These Black Youth Want To Improve Mental Health<\/p>\n

\"TheGeoron Evans, 20, said the program gives him a voice and a position beyond the negative stereotypes of Black men that others project on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me a power \u2014 a power to organize,\u201d Evans said. \u201cAnd it puts me in a space where I can get young folk also like myself to want and see change in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans lost five friends to gun violence over the past four years. That\u2019s a reason why he decided to apply for the paid-fellowship that serves 15- to 20-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis numb feeling that you get from something like that, it makes you really like \u2014 you almost expect it,\u201d Evans said. \u201cYou expect one day your life will be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021 there were 271 homicides and 324 victims of non-fatal shootings in Indianapolis. The number of homicides so far in 2022 is fewer compared to this time last year, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Yet, the ongoing violence creates fear and depression among the city\u2019s youth, and even Evans himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what\u2019s, like, the real point of living, you know?,\u201d Evans said about how he\u2019s felt in the past. \u201cWhat do I get out of it when I know I\u2019m just gonna get my life taken away from me at any cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now Evans has shifted his mindset and wants to make a difference in his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy long term goal for this is just to change the narrative within the city of youth in general,\u201d Evans said. \u201cYou know, how we\u2019re criminalized as thugs, welfare queens, or just people that are lazy good for nothings, when I know that\u2019s just not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates for mental health<\/p>\n

The Black Youth Collective is advocating for more mental health awareness, especially for low-income community members who can\u2019t afford those services, said 15-year-old Londen, another fellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have mental health problems and a lot of people don\u2019t have anybody to lean on,\u201d Londen said.<\/p>\n

A goal of the collective is to expand the city\u2019s emergency dispatch system to create a new clinician and mental crisis response team. They also want to offer more options on the dispatch line so people who are having a mental health crisis don\u2019t have to call the police.<\/p>\n

Some advocates believe a 24-hour emergency mental health dispatch system\u00a0could have helped prevent<\/a>\u00a0the death of\u00a0Herman Whitfield III, who died during police custody in April.<\/p>\n

Indianapolis leaders are taking note. Monday night Mayor Joe Hogsett released his\u00a0proposed 2023 budget<\/a>\u00a0with $2 million ear-marked for a 24-hour clinician-led emergency response team.<\/p>\n

Other cities have already created similar programs. In Eugene, Ore., the\u00a0Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets<\/a>, or CAHOOTS, program through the city\u2019s local White Bird Clinic has served as an emergency mental health dispatch system for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Evans said the collective is working with Hogsett\u2019s office to figure out what an updated dispatch system could look like in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuicide is a part of mental health, but it\u2019s not the only part of mental health,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt varies from what you see in everyday streets, what you [are] going through in school, at home because it\u2019s such a big problem. But there\u2019s so many key issues involved with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fellows in the collective also want the city to mandate more data transparency policies for police.<\/p>\n

Josh Riddick, an organizer for Faith in Indiana\u2019s Black Church Coalition, said the goal of the fellowship program is to build power for teens and young adults in Marion County.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn so many spaces, our Black youth are used as statistics, as narrative plot points, as these kind of flattened characters who are also victims and perpetrators of all sorts of injustice and violence, Riddick said. \u201cAnd we recognize that\u2019s not the full narrative and the full breadth of our Black youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

This generation of young people have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice protests, climate change and much more. Riddick said the community must equip youth with the resources they need to tackle these problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery social movement in this country was led by young people,\u201d Riddick said. \u201cAnd if we\u2019re going to be serious about the type of change we want to build within the Black church coalition, we had to build a vehicle for our young people to participate and build power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A local faith group is helping Black Indianapolis youth learn about politics and empowerment. The eight young people in the first cohort of\u00a0Faith in Indiana\u2019s Black Youth Collective fellowship program are using the experience to advocate for more mental health awareness in the city. These Black Youth Want To Improve Mental Health Georon Evans, 20, Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,661,769,1],"tags":[658,601,1345,1293],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42211,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42206\/revisions\/42211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}