On Thursday 21 February 2021, the Emerging Minds Network held a workshop with those who support children & young people affected by racism to set priorities on how to tackle our Voices, Power & Attitudes Research challenge. We were focusing on the question, ‘Racism and the mental health of children & young people: what do we need to know to make a difference?’
This workshop was hosted by Professor Ann John, who is a professor of Public Health & Psychiatry at Swansea University and a member of the Emerging Minds Network leadership team.
We had over 50 participants including educators, youth workers, mental health practitioners and researchers from a range of organisations, including: Youth Access, Barnardos, Angelou Centre, Bridge for Children, Mind, Young Minds, Partnership for Children, the Centre for Society and Mental Health, Glasgow Calendonian University, University of Nottingham, Liverpool John Moore’s University & Roehampton university amongst others.
We were also very pleased to be joined by young artists Ronni Winter, Conor Powell and Selorm R Q A from our partners Fully Focused Productions. They were able to produce a visual response to our discussions and have kindly agreed to share their artwork as part of the session’s findings.
Kadra Abdinasir
Kadra Abdinasir is the Head of Children & Young People’s Mental Health at the Centre for Mental Health and also the lead for the Children & Young People’s Mental Health Coalition.
If you would like to know more about any of the reports that Kadra referenced during her talk, the links are available below:
Mental Health for All? (12 November 2020) (link)
Against the odds – Evaluation of the Mind Birmingham Up My Street programme (5 July 2017) (link)
Conor Powell
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Prof Kamaldeep Bhui
Prof Kamaldeep Bhui is Professor of Psychiatry and an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the University of Oxford but also holds numerous other positions including Director of Synergi Collaborative Centre.
Selorm RQA
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Fiyory Ghezae
Fiyory Ghezae is a first year PhD student, She’s also a mental health advocate and qualified personal trainer who focuses on using physical activity and exercise as a tool to help those struggling with their mental health. Fiyory has been undertaking a 3-month internship with the Emerging Minds Network. Fiyory has been undertaking a rapid scoping review and here she shares her work in progress.
Ronni Winter
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Jawwad Mustafa & Nikki Adebiyi
Nikki Adebiyi & Jawwad Mustafa are advisors to the Emerging Minds Network. Here, they present recommendations from the workshop they facilitated with young people affected by racism in January 2021.
Nikki Adebiyi is a Lived Experience Leader and mental health advocate dedicated to raising awareness about social and systemic barriers to healing from trauma and childhood adversity. She is Founder of the Bounce Black community.
Jawwad Mustafa is a mental health activist and works as a freelance social media manager. He’s worked with multiple mental health campaigns, including Our Minds, Our Future and Debating Mental Health.
Florence Ruby
Florence Ruby, Research Associate from the Anna Freud Centre also presented findings from a recent round table event hosted by their Emerging Minds Special Interest Research Group: Crucial conversations on youth mental health and racism.