This is part of a series that details Community Coalition's major highlights of 2009.
Click here to read about Communities Rising.

Healthy Minds, Healthy Futures!

Violence. Gang-bangers. Police brutality. Failing schools. Drugs. It’s a recipe for disaster that creates fear, worry, and stress that negatively affects the overall health and wellness of South LA youth.

Community Coalition scored a major victory in 2009 in the fight to bring mental health resources to South LA high schools where they are needed. CoCo approached Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who expressed his support to the solutions brought forth by CoCo membership in the "Healthy Minds Now!" forum after a sweeping survey of South LA youth revealed shocking results.

Survey Says

Community Coalition's youth program, South Central Youth Empowered through Action, surveyed over 6,000 students from seven South LA high schools in 2008. The survey results revealed widespread symptoms of clinical depression that were common among high school students. Read coverage of the survey results in the LA Times, Our Weekly, and the LA Wave.

The survey revealed that students suffer from physical exhaustion, fatigue, hopelessness, loss of interest, difficulty sleeping, and oversleeping—all clinical signs of depression, said Dr. Cheryl Grills, Chair of the Psychology Department at Loyola Marymount University. “Often these symptoms are masked and go unrecognized by young people… equally troubling is what appears to be a tendency by adults and youth alike to mislabel these symptoms as character flaws.” It was common to call their loss of energy as a sign of laziness and not one of depression, she said.

“As youth growing up in South Central, we’ve got to deal with challenges that kids elsewhere don’t,” said Taylor Griffin, a junior at Dorsey High School. “On top of that many times our parents are struggling to find work or are holding down two or three jobs just to get by day to day. This stuff is going on but we show up at school and are expected to pretend like none of its happening.”

The problem is that about 50 percent of all South LA high school students stop showing up at school.

SCYEA Fights for "Healthy Minds Now!"

Community Coalition's youth organizing program, South Central Youth Empowered Through Action (SCYEA), held a forum in late spring to find a way to address the many issues raised in the survey, including the “drop out crisis.” The forum, “Healthy Minds Now!” brought together 150 youth, relative caregivers, parents, teachers and community leaders.

Youth highlighted the findings as critical in understanding why so many of their peers “drop out” before they graduate. According to SCYEA youth who participated in the forum, students are “pushed out” by all the different negative factors that cause them to lose interest in school.

Another important highlight from the forum was the community’s demand for “wellness centers.” These centers should provide a variety of health resources for youth and families that address mental health issues but also focus on prevention and academic success.

Getting into Action

Community Coalition brought the issue to the attention of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has become an ally in building a strong, healthy and well-rounded community through the creation of "wellness centers" that focus on prevention and academic success for our yotuh. Community Coalition is now working on a model for a comprehensive mental health center or "wellness center" that can be readily implemented in South LA high schools.

Community Coalition and SCYEA youth have traveled to visit various high school-based health centers in places like the Bay Area in the last year. The challenge now is to make sure that everyone is on board with the idea—from the Los Angeles Unified School District to mental health professionals in the County.

“We need to get the whole community involved: students, parents, teachers, administration. We all have to become part of the solution. With training and support I think we can do it,” said Griffin.

For more information on the Healthy Minds Now! campaign, you can contact Joshua Busch at joshua[at]cocosouthla[org] or call 323-750-9087.