Mental Health, Healing, & Wholeness for Our Black Boys

Graphic has a background image that shows Black boys sitting together and gathered around some guest speakers. The guest speakers are in front of a projector screen that has the words "See Me, Hear Me" on the top. The words beneath that line are not legible. The scene takes place at DRW College Prep in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, IL. On top of the image, there is a blue transparent layer. On top of that, in the bottom left corner, there is a blue text on a yellow background that reads "Mental Health, Healing, and Wholeness for Our Black Boys". The Noble Schools logo is in the bottom right corner.

“I’m for mental health. I’m in therapy right now, I was in therapy a few years ago. It is so important.”

Advocating for better mental healthcare for Black men and boys is always on the top of Emmanuel Jackson’s mind. As a college counselor at Muchin College Prep and as a Black man himself, he often sees his Black male scholars struggle much in the same way he did growing up.

“I knew I had to play my role and be a voice for our Black male scholars, particularly because I am a Black male and have been a Black male scholar in the past,” Jackson said, “It’s tough. They’ve been through a lot. They’re gonna continue to go through a lot.”

For him, getting mental healthcare and community support was a game changer. Now, he wants the same for his students.

“We wanna make sure that, as they go through these obstacles, they are getting the supports that they need and that they have healthy and constructive ways to express themselves,” Jackson said.

These are the thoughts and feelings that propelled Jackson to jump on the Black Boys Collaborative group last spring. He took the lead with his fellow educators, Yolanda Hanna and Kameshia Ward from Hansberry College Prep, to create a new event for all our campuses at Noble Schools this year — “Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear Me”.

On the left of this graphic, there are two of the same silhouetted head with locs overlapping each other. The top one is dark blue and the bottom one, shadowing it to the right, is a burnt reddish-orange. On top of the head, there is white cream text that reads "Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear Me". To the right of the heads, there is white cream text on a burnt reddish-brown background that reads "A safe space for all Black boys to express their authentic selves and build relationships." The Noble Schools logo is in the bottom left corner. The background is a cream white color with comic-book-like dark blue dots on the edges.

The focus of the events is to provide space and resources for our Black boys to talk about mental health and how they can access care. The events have kicked off this month and will run into March. For this event, Jackson and his other collaborators partnered with a local non-profit organization – The CornerStore Chicago.

The CornerStore is a non-profit focused on helping youth access culturally-relevant and empowering mental healthcare, led and founded by Michelle Thompkins.

During the event, Thompkins and her colleague PJ Walker will be engaging in discussion with our boys around several topics. They’ll be teaching about the importance of mental health and inviting students to journal and practice mindfulness. They’re also bringing in several Black male guest speakers from a multitude of backgrounds from clinicians to community organizers to talk with our boys about mental health.

“The guests are brought in with the intention to highlight and celebrate Black men who create safe spaces for Black men/boys and their wellness,” Thompkins said, “Based on their expertise and experiences as Black men, they support the conversation.”

Photo shows a group of Black boys at DRW College Prep, posing with staff and guests from The CornerStore Chicago after their Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear Me event.

DRW BBH Photo 2

Psychiatrist Dr. Obari Cartman (left, front row) spoke with students at DRW College Prep about how they can take care of themselves and their communities.

But the cornerstone of Black Boys Heal is rooted in music and culture.

A bulk of our time will be spent in our See Me, Hear Me activity, which is dedicated to discussing how the students see and hear themselves as well as other Black men in the community,” Thompkins said, “We then listen and look at multimedia clips, featuring some of the hottest rappers and thought leaders to discuss: What are some of the things that we see them navigating? What is some of the pain that they’re experiencing? What are they trying to tell us about their experience?”

Thompkins and Walker are showing song clips ranging from Lil Durk to Kendrick Lamar as well as TED Talks and podcast clips. Both staff and students are invited to participate. So far, our boys have been rapping along with the songs and, along with attending staff, engaging in deep discussion around the lyrics and what it means to them.

Check out what some of the students who attended at DRW College Prep said:

@nobleschools @benobledrw had their Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear me event! We want to thank Obari Cartman, Psychologist , PJ Walker, Facilitator/Community Outreach, and Michelle Thompkins, Founder of The CornerStore Chicago, NFP @thecornerstorechicago for holding this space for our students! From meditation, deep reflection, discussing coping mechanisms, and more, our guest speakers ensured these students are SEEN AND HEARD! ✊ #SeeMeHearMe #BlackLivesMatter #BeNoble #Antiracism ♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim

“When I came into the session, I was a little down,” RJ, a student at DRW said, “But when y’all got to discussing about how we should talk to each other and communicate how we’re feeling and then we all got to play the songs, we connected. I really looked into the lyrics.”

WHY WE’RE FOCUSING ON MENTAL HEALTH

Image shows a young Black boy at Baker College Prep in Chicago, IL, writing in a journal during the Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear Me event at his school.

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Students are encouraged to journal about their thoughts and feelings during the event.

Like Jackson said, our Black boys have been through a lot. Every day, they deal with the mental, physical, and socioeconomic burdens of systemic racism and discrimination. Some of our Black boys experience poverty and food & housing insecurity. Many have witnessed violence in their communities. All of them carry the heavy weight of what society says about them.

“Historically, Black male bodies have been a target or seen as a threat or as something other than who they are,” Thompkins said, “I’ve heard teachers, admin, and even clinicians using labels and language that painted children from communities that I come from or from people who look like me as though they were deviant, thug, and criminals before they had even finished graduating from high school.”

Our Black boys continue to bring brilliance, innovation, and joy into our spaces despite all of these obstacles that they face. However, their invisible struggle with mental health has often remained unseen and unaddressed.

The stigma and inaccesibility of mental healthcare for the Black community, especially for men, makes it difficult for our boys to develop healthy coping skills and find much-needed community support to take care of their mental health.

“It is telling in our current status right now as a community just how much our Black men and our Black boys need the additional support and safe space,” Thompkins said.

At Noble, we’ve seen how this is impacting our boys. We’ve seen it in their grades, in their actions, and in their disengagement with school. We knew that addressing mental health was an essential part of our mission to improve the school experience for our Black boys.

“I just want our scholars to have strong strategies to cope and resources,” Jackson said, “I’m hoping that Noble as an organization will continue to have resources and bring supports to the school. And not only just bring supports, but that our scholars will want to take advantage of those support systems. And that, over time, we see better outcomes for our Black students both in GPA, in culture, and relationship building. That’s my main goal and focus.”

Noble Schools was grateful to be able to connect with Thompkins and The CornerStore to bring in some of those strong supports – and hopefully ones that will continue to grow at our campuses.

Photo shows a student at Baker College Prep, taking notes on how to start his own circle to support his peers and their mental health during the Black Boys Heal: See Me, Hear Me event.

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Tavon, a student at Baker College Prep, was inspired by the session to start his own circle to continue talking about mental health. In this photo, he's taking notes from Thompkins on how to do it.

“My hope is that CornerStore continues to work with Noble and continues to support the innovation and the opportunities that come when we’re thinking about mental health and healing, especially on a community level,” Thompkins said.

ABOUT THE CORNERSTORE CHICAGO

Through her studies and intentional, collaborative work in the community, Thompkins saw a huge lack of resources for people of color, especially for youth, in the mental health field. This is what ultimately led her to create The CornerStore.

“For me, I really wanted to think about how I could take a field like mental health that wasn’t originally intended for people of color and create a safe environment for us – to say that mental health and healing is for us and there are safe ways that we can have this conversation,” Thompkins said.

Her choice of the name for The CornerStore stemmed from this thought – she wanted mental health to feel as comfortable and accessible as the cornerstores that are staples in Chicago neighborhoods.

“I wanted to think about how I could create a safe space for youth where they felt like they belonged and that felt familiar. That’s what mental health and healing should look like,” Thompkins said.

Photo shows a watercolor painting of a light red cornerstore on a street corner. There are road signs sitting on the corner with it as well. The sign above the store's awning reads "The CornerStore" and a sign on the other side of the store reads "Chicago". This is the logo for The CornerStore Chicago, a non-profit in Chicago, IL that is dedicated to providing mental health resources and support for youth in the city.

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The logo for The CornerStore Chicago

She started by sitting down with schools and holding forums in 2018. She talked to teachers and families about how they would want a mental health organization to better support their students. From those talks, she built The CornerStore’s approach to mental health: bringing in culturally-relevant resources and healthy creative outlets to help youth heal and make decisions to better their lives.

“There was an emerging crisis where I felt like we really needed to redefine how we could meet our youth where they’re at,” Thompkins said about the rising rate of suicide for youth in 2018, “So, the way that we connect with youth is by using culture.”

Thompkins says she tries to understand what students are interested in and then curates her mental health conversations to each unique student and school community – like the See Me, Hear Me activity she’s using in Noble schools. She says she also tries to bring back some of the cultural and ancestral healing practices that the Black community has used for centuries. She also spoke on how her programming emphasizes the importance and need of community.

“For a lot of the students that I engage with, it’s very uncomfortable to sit in a one-on-one experience. But when you’re with other people who have a similar background to you or who understand what you’re going through, it makes that healing conversation a little bit easier,” Thompkins said.

Since starting the organization in 2018, Thompkins and her colleagues at The CornerStore have worked with about 30 schools and over 75 other like-minded organizations in Chicago. Their main goal, she says, is to help youth manifest their dreams and activate the resources they have at hand to reach them – which ultimately leads to empowerment.

“My goal is to remind the students to never forget their ‘map’ – never forget what they want their life to look like, never forget what healing, mental health, and wholeness looks like for them,” Thompkins said.

Photo shows a full body portrait of Michelle Thompkins, founder and CEO of The CornerStore Chicago. Michelle is a Black woman, wearing a black t-shirt, ripped jeans, and black Converse while leaning against a street lamp. Above her are street signs that read "South Forrestville Ave" and "East 47th Street". Behind her is a Chicago street with cars and buildings.

Michelle Thompkins headshot

Michelle Thompkins, founder & CEO of The CornerStore Chicago

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