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No one told us that youth our age are entering the criminal justice system after truancies or school suspensions, that a high proportion of sex-trafficked youth are Native Hawaiian, or that people our age can be held in solitary confinement when incarcerated, with few limits.

As first-year college students, we learned about these problems — or, we say, opportunities to make a difference — not in a classroom, but as part of a policy internship program with the Opportunity Youth Action Hui (OYAH).

OYAH is a collaboration of organizations and individuals committed to reducing the harmful effects of a punitive incarceration system for youth and promoting Native Hawaiian equity in the justice system. OYAH seeks holistic and culturally informed approaches among agencies serving youth.

Our work as policy interns has been to identify legislation that will prevent youth incarceration and improve the criminal justice system. Of the 2,800 bills introduced in the Legislature, more than one hundred would make a difference in the lives of incarcerated youth, or Opportunity Youth.

OYAH has a specific commitment to the Native Hawaiian community, a group that is over-represented in various disadvantaged and troubled fields, including incarceration, homelessness, poverty, sex trafficking, abuse, poor health (both mental and physical), and more. According to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders made up only 23% of adults in the state but a reported 47% of people incarcerated under Hawaii’s jurisdiction.

Read more at CivilBeat.org.

Last week, Florida’s Senate passed the Parental Rights in Education bill. Colloquially known as the Don’t Say Gay bill, the law would ban classroom discussion on topics regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools—and grant parents the right to sue school districts for apparent violations.

Advocacy groups concerned with LGBTQ well-being worry about the toll of such legislation on mental health — especially given that 42% of LGBTQ youth already seriously considered suicide last year, including more than half of trans and nonbinary youth. Florida’s bill threatens to take away the solace of school, where many young people can freely embrace their identities. Similar bills are springing up around the country, in various forms.

Crucially, the ban on discussions also extends to personal identity, erasing potentially life-saving support systems at school; 50% of surveyed youth said school was an affirming space for them. Under the law, if kids shared information about their own orientations or identities with teachers, those educators would be obligated to report them to parents, effectively outing them against their will.

Read more at FastCompany.com.

“CON QUÉ AYUDARÁ una counselor?” my mom said. “With literally everything you just mentioned,” I answered.

My response to her question (“What will a counselor help with?”) was yet another attempt of mine to suggest that counseling would help our family. After hearing her complain over the phone for more an hour about my brother’s relationship with his fiancé, I told her I had suggested my brother try pre-marital counseling, and that he was open to it. My mom on the other hand, could not possibly understand how something like that would help.

To my mom, doctors are the ones that put you back together. They’re the ones who give you the pill to make you feel better or administer the treatment to make the disease go away. In her mind, therapists are something else. A therapist, she says, is just there to put the blame on someone. If a therapist suggests you might play some role in the predicament you’re in, well, then they are just plain wrong.

Consider that only about one-third of Latinx people who experience mental health issues are treated, compared to the one-half of non-Latinx people who are treated, according to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. While language and financial barriers affect access to mental healthcare, stigma that surrounds anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues remains strong in our community, affecting the overall wellbeing of our loved ones.

The one bright light in all of this is the shift in perception in the upcoming generation of Latinx people.

Read more at HealthCentral.com.

One year after the spa shootings, the Asian American community as a whole is still grieving, and dealing with the trauma from that day. Vena Kim Cain, an Asian American psychotherapist in midtown Atlanta, said the spa shootings impacted her community on many levels.

“I experienced massive amounts of grief from the incident and couldn’t leave the house for two weeks because I didn’t know when I would burst into crying,” Kim Cain said.

When it comes to dealing with grief and trauma, many Asian Americans don’t reach out to talk to a professional. Previous research from the National Latino and Asian American Study shows Asian Americans are three times less likely to seek help than white Americans.

“We’re used to not speaking up, and trying to blend in, and keep the status quo, and not make any waves,” Cain said. “And that sort of prevents us from being able to, and desiring to, speak up. It’s a way to keep us safe.”

But Kim Cain said that changed for many after the spa shootings tragedy.

“There was a huge wave of Asian Americans looking for mental health help after that,” she said. She added that the Asian American therapists she knows saw a large increase in Asian American clients.

“Because there’s an inherent understanding of what the experience is like without having to explain it, without having to justify it, without being questioned,” she explained.

Kim Cain said for Asian Americans, especially women, the shootings sadly validated what they have experienced for years.

“That all these microaggressions and hyper sexualizations, portrayals and assumptions about us are violent and can turn into actual violence,” said Kim Cain.

Now, one year later, Cain says the healing has just begun.

Read more at 11Alive.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. BrownStone Community Healthcare Centers, has been selected as the Partner of the Month for April in recognition of National Minority Health Month.

BrownStone Community Healthcare Centers (BrownStoneCHC) was founded in 2008. Their services are organized to meet the needs of the individual with the individual and their family, an integral part of the treatment team. They believe that recovery is achieved, and wellness is maintained by the engagement of natural support; therefore, it is their job to teach the skills and establish the linkages necessary for individuals and their treatment partners to maintain resiliency on their own.

The current programs and services:

• Therapy Services​
• Speech & Language
• ​School Observation
• ​Educational Services
• Occupational Therapy​

Learn more about BrownStone Community Healthcare Centers and their mission to increase the quality of life to consumers and their families by developing customized programs and services, using a community-based approach for implementation in Georgia.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

There are currently 506 cases of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) identified across 71 selected urban cities, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. Of those cases, 128 are missing indigenous women, 280 are murdered, 98 have an “unknown status” and the median age of victims is 29 years old.

In 2016, the Urban Indian Health Institute said there were 5,712 Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls cases reported, but only 116 logged in the Department of Justice’s database. UIHI also identifies the Invisible 153, which represents cases that do not exist in law enforcement records.

Media attention is very lacking on coverage of Native American women cases despite the national murder rate being 10 times higher for women living on a reservation and murder being the third leading cause of death for Native American women.

According to MMIWNC.org, North Carolina sees the most violence toward indigenous women in the eastern part of the state. There have been at least 31 Native American women who have gone missing in eastern North Carolina since 1998.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women campaign started around 2015 to raise awareness and has been gaining momentum ever since making its way across the country.

“The MMIW is currently working on starting a chapter in Cherokee. The movement has been coming across the United States and has now made its way to western North Carolina,” said Sky Sampson, Director of the Cherokee Center at Western Carolina University and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian.

Read more at TheSmokyMountainTimes.com.