Niagara group aims to bridge the gap in mental health services for young Black men

Since 2019, Future Black Female (FBF) has been helping young Black women and girls gain access to mental health services, financial literacy and career strategies.

Focusing on the ages of 16 to 22, FBF aims to help that demographic through transitional moments like graduating from high school, leaving home and getting a first job.

Now, the non-profit is looking to expand that mission to support young Black men and boys through a project called Ujamaa, which Bell said means "brotherhood," in Swahili.

Ujamaa is also used as a word for extended family and a principle of Kwanzaa that means building community through shared social wealth.

FBF's community engagement worker, Leon Bell, said the program came together out of a need for services to get over the stigma of seeking professional help.

"A lot of young Black men and boys in Canada may have Caribbean or African roots," said Bell.

"In their household, it may not be something that is normally addressed or that they feel is important."

He said the program aims to overcome cultural barriers and added services like this one are essential at that age.

"There's a lot of trauma in the community … If this goes unaddressed, then it just could spiral into other things like incarceration or [homelessness.]"

'What about the boys?'

FBF was started by Tapo Chimbganda who was informed by her own experience as a 21-year-old Black immigrant in Canada.

"If I had the community, if I had the supports, I probably wouldn't have experienced so much trauma, so much challenges, so much barriers," she said. 

Chimbganda has a PhD in language, culture and teaching and a master's degree in psychotherapy and said she's worked in different communities in the Niagara region.

"I kept coming across a similar story, especially for Black women and other women of colour, the social isolation, the not knowing like simple things and why financial literacy is so important to us," she said.

That's why she built FBF on three pillars: mental health, financial literacy and education and career strategies.

Since being funded in 2019, Chimbganda said FBF has helped hundreds of young Black women and girls not just regionally, but also provincially and nationally. 

Seeing the work FBF was doing, she said parents, youth and other community members started asking "what about the boys?"

One of the program's goals is to create safe and culturally relevant spaces for Black boys and young men.

Bell said this would look like "sporting activities, playing chess in a community centre, or it could be just coming together and sharing food."

On June 28, FBF held a barbecue event where they called out to young Black men and boys and launched Ujamaa.

Demystifying mental health services

Chimbganda said, while speaking to youth, she and Bell heard young men saying "yes" when asked if mental health is important, but "no" to if they would see a therapist. 

"There's a lot of mystery around it, right? So, part of the stigma that we're trying to address with that is just demystifying mental health and therapy," she said.

Ola Kuforiji, a Hamilton-based registered psychotherapist will be working with FBF to address that.

"There was always a desire for me to be able to help bridge a gap between the, at times, sterile or even whitewashed world of mental health within institutions and communities, specifically various Black communities," he said.

Kuforiji said the pandemic isolated and "robbed" young people of important, milestone events like graduations and school dances.

He also highlighted other concerns he hears from young Black male clients, like a fear of having the "wrong opinion," how to react to unfair treatment such as racism, and isolation.

Helping young Black men find their voice

Young Black men and boys tend to look at influencers and podcasters for advice now, said Kuforiji, making it hard for them to orient themselves.

"It's important to stand on the shoulder of giants," he said. "But what can happen, you know, when we're feeling particularly lost, down or anxious is we can lose our own voice."

He aims to help people find their voice. 

"Then for men, and young Black men especially, [they wonder], 'how do I define my masculinity? What does that mean? Can I even use that term?'" said Kuforiji.

Kuforiji also wants to focus on guiding people to understand what safe places are and how to be vulnerable in them. 

He said it can be hard for these young men to trust people, even if they look like them, which is why getting them through the door at a consultation or a first session is so important.