Building resilient communities through mental wellness

Mental health

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

There are many reasons why people may ignore their mental health, including the stigma, cost, and shame that often surrounds this issue. It can also be seen as a sign of weakness, which in gang-affiliated communities and in some professions, can make people feel they don’t have control over a situation. These perceptions are exacerbated in high-need communities, where misinformation, lack of access and systemic inequalities add to the challenges residents face when seeking help. For police officers, the nature of their job exposes them to stressful and traumatic situations. According to Health Psychology Research, studies show that 1 in 10 officers worldwide struggle with some form of mental illness. The historically strained relationship that exists between police and communities of color fuels ongoing tension and mistrust, compounding existing mental health challenges on both “sides,” creating a cycle of distress, continued distrust and negative assumptions about the “other side.”

Project Blue uses youth programs to strengthen relationships in South LA between residents and officers in a long term effort to build stronger and safer communities. Our Youth Leadership Council (YLC) program has been serving high school students for over 3 years, providing nearly 100 youth with the skills and resources needed to confidently pursue college and career options after high school graduation. LAPD officers are consistently involved with all our programs, serving as mentors/coaches, and participating in workshops and activities alongside our youth. Through this grant, we plan to partner with Marching Beauties, a non-profit serving South LA for over 10 years and an expert in mental wellness resources. A bespoke curriculum will be designed to address mental health for both high school youth and officers, but what’s unique about our program is that youth and officers will attend together in the same space as students/participants, learning from the facilitators and from each other. This will help break down barriers to not only strengthen their own mental health journeys, but to also build empathy, communication and understanding between both groups. Participants will meet once a week for 12 weeks, and explore topics such as awareness, acceptance and building connections through engaging discussions and activities. Each week, modules build upon each other through a mental health framework to create a culturally competent and solid foundation of mental wellness.

Using a “train the trainer” model where we train more staff to deliver the curriculum, this increases our capacity to reach more participants and create a ripple effect of impact. A shared learning environment with honest and vulnerable discussions of experiences and perspectives can create a deeper understanding of each other’s realities, helping to break down stereotypes and assumptions and build empathy to promote a sense of belonging. Time spent together also helps youth and officers identify systemic issues that contribute to mental health disparities such as socioeconomic inequalities and racism. Empathy and cultural competence among officers can improve community relations and reduce the likelihood of confrontations and use of force, and for youth, empowering them to recognize and address their own mental health needs can reduce the prevalence of untreated mental illnesses. As a result, increasing empathy has the potential to enhance public safety, creating a safer Los Angeles.

We plan to use several indicators of impact to define and measure our program’s success. Because this is an early-stage program, we define our success by whether participants have increased their knowledge and understanding of mental health issues. We plan to use pre- and post-class assessments to gauge any changes in knowledge, cultural competence, attitudes and behaviors as they relate to mental health. Using an independent data evaluator, we plan to measure our success by evaluating any improvements in communication and trust between officers and youth, utilizing feedback mechanisms such as surveys and interviews. We would also measure participants’ awareness and perception of their mental health, their willingness to seek support and whether they know where to get help or find resources. Follow-up surveys and interviews will take place 6 months and then 12 months after their cohorts have concluded, so that we can evaluate any sustained changes in attitude and behaviors over time.

Our Mental Health Matters curriculum will be co-designed by Project Blue’s program team and Marching Beauties, but primarily developed by Marching Beauties’ Founder Trayonna Rankins, who will also facilitate each module and cohort. Alongside our experience working with officers, Marching Beauties’ experience in developing mental health curricula specifically designed for youth makes them the ideal partner for this new program, as this unique program needs to create a safe and supportive shared learning environment for all participants.