Young People of Color Support Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the People of Color @ 7Cups guide brought to you by The Steve Fund. The Steve Fund is the nation’s only organization focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of people of color. We believe that right at this moment, there are young people of color who are suffering; they are failing academically, feeling isolated, experiencing challenges in adjusting to college life and in some cases experiencing serious risk, because factors influencing mental health are too poorly understood for this population.

Our guide is intended to provide young people of diverse racial backgrounds help in addressing the kinds of emotional and behavioral concerns that they may face during their significant transitions from home to college and from college to early adulthood afterward. We have been very fortunate to have the friendship of the JED Foundation. JED has allowed us to share videos with you of racially diverse celebrities and every day people who have experience with emotional and behavioral concerns. These brief videos are intended to let you know that when one has such experiences, you are in “good company” and you are not alone.

Our guides are intentionally brief to give you “just the facts” on some of the primary concerns that young people of color can face as they transition from home to college and from college to going out on their own. They are intended to provide you with a safe space to learn just a bit about mental health concerns and to allow you to “name” your experience. As you read through our guides, we hope that you will think about how this information resonates with you and if there are ideas that you think are missing, you can email us to let us know at (info@stevefund.org). These are just the first of a series of guides intended to provide you with support.

We hope that you will remain connected with The Steve Fund through these guides, through our listeners with specialized training to directly speak to your unique needs and through letting us know what you think of our work. Ultimately, YOU are our priority and we want to support you so please read through our guides (focused on depression, emotional well-being, anxiety and making transitions) and connect with us.

Overview: Emotional Well-being and Mental Health for Young People of Color

Everyone deals with challenges and difficulties. This is true for kids, teens, young adults and adults. Sometimes our challenges become overwhelming and difficult to manage creating stress which impacts everyone regardless of race, gender or age. For young people of color, there may be added worries related to seeking help for stress and emotional problems. As young people of color pursue their goals and embark on their future endeavors, we aim to create and sustain a safe environment that encourages and supports conversation about mental health awareness in racially diverse communities and provides resources and information for those in need.

Objectives:

• Provide you with insight on how mental health impacts people of color.
• Enable you to feel less alone and realize that mental health struggles are real and your feelings are always valid.
• Help you be honest with yourself and with others so that as a community and society, we can work towards raising awareness and de-stigmatizing mental illness and poor emotional health.

Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest)

Connecting Voices: Overlooking of Mental Health Challenges in Communities of Color

Young, Gifted, and @ Risk" Symposium: Michael Mason

Source: The “Young People of Color” self help guide was made possible due to the collaboration with The Steve Fund, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and promoting scholarship related to the emotional and mental health issues of young people of color in their transition to college, throughout their college years, and the transition to life beyond college.