Daquan Ford: We youths need Chicago leaders to engage, listen and act

Chicago Tribune

15-05-2025

As the city and civic leaders are figuring out how to respond to teen trends and debate over curfews, the bigger issue has been ignored — a mental health crisis affecting Chicago's youths.
The flare-ups of violence at a few of these events don't come from young people gathering. It's the feelings of hopelessness for many young people. They come from being so often stereotyped and perceived as problems to solve, experiencing family separation and having negative experiences with law enforcement. Then COVID-19 made these issues even more intense. Many young people had to remain at home, sometimes in difficult family situations and without safe spaces for them to find support and care.
With limited positive outlets for sharing their frustrations and hurt, they look for community elsewhere and sometimes turn to activities that limit their ability to thrive.
Those of us who have been youth researchers in a participatory action research group project have seen strong evidence of these problems. In our work among young men of color in our city, we found that 66% of those we interviewed and surveyed, from neighborhoods on the South and West sides, said that they were facing mental health challenges.
How are institutions supposed to address the real problem affecting our city — the unmet mental health needs among young people? We can look at how some institutions in our city are turning to young people to create solutions to address mental health.
Between 2019 and 2022, Communities United, in partnership with Lurie Children's Hospital, helped a group of 15 young men of color design the Ujima Project. The name comes from a Swahili word meaning 'collective work and responsibility,' representing our desire to understand the mental health challenges we face as young men.
Many of us have shared experiences related to mental health, but the young men we interviewed felt that the systems that served them at times did not prioritize their concerns and, instead, created strict rules with limited understanding of their individual needs. Many said they crave the chance to find outlets that are positive, where they can show their talents and become leaders. In a very important result, young men expressed they wanted increased access to mental health professionals of color who come from similar communities.
In response to our report, Lurie created a pipeline program for high school and college students, with backgrounds and life experiences similar to my own, who are interested in pursuing a career in mental health.
'Listening to youth needs and solutions makes our institutions better and more impactful,' said Mary Kate Daly, vice president of the hospital's Healthy Communities. 'We've had pipeline programs now at Lurie Children's for 20-plus years, but we never thought to have a specific program for aspiring mental health professionals until the Ujima youth recommended it.'
As a senior at Mather High School, I am excited about the possibilities for my future, and Daly said she was excited to be working with us. My dream is to work hard in college and study psychology, to have a career providing mental health therapy services for people who do not have enough money to pay for services.
If we want to ensure that all young people feel this same sense of hope and see positive possibilities for their future, we need more institutions to create opportunities to listen to their ideas and solutions. And more importantly, they need to take action like Lurie Children's Hospital did.