Four Steps to an NYC ‘Healing Revolution’
Isolation. Anxiety. Depression. Grief. These are the emotions that cloud the days and haunt the nights for so many New Yorkers in this second full winter of Covid-19.
Yet to me, and many people in my community, the constant news of people dying, the failure of social support systems, and the feeling that we have nowhere to turn to are experiences we have had to endure and live with every day, even before this pandemic ever hit us. There are reasons why we were not prepared to support communities through the mental health challenges they have had to face during a global pandemic.
Yes, we see flyers on trains and buses, and short commercials for the City’s ThriveNYC “mental first aid” campaign. Yet we also know that there’s an under-availability of actual resources and a continued over-reliance on law enforcement to resolve what should be public health matters.
Think about the number of Black and Brown people who are in contact with law enforcement on any given day, or that are sitting in prisons across the state. The reality is that we must do better, beefing up mental health resources instead of building up systems of enforcement and punishment.
As we continue to push for more mental health resources throughout the city, we also must pour more into the community organizations that are frontline responders to people in crisis.
I write this as a social entrepreneur and community organizer who began his career at the age of 20, after serving a four-year sentence in a New York State youth prison. Upon my release, I had to hustle and work twice as hard to be able to prove to everyone that I was no longer the young man who was capable of so much harm and violence. However, I also began to see that there were very few systems, organizations, or spaces that allowed me to truly engage in my own much-needed healing. I had to both over-perform and push through my healing on my own.
Unfortunately, I struggled to do this, and I attempted suicide in November 2018. I was lucky to survive. Since then, I’ve begun a journey of healing and made it my goal to ensure that other young organizers are supported in the ways that I was not.
As a result, these four things have become clear to me. I think they should guide what I think of as a healing revolution.
First, non-profit organizations engaged in work with the community need financial resources for properly supporting the health and wellness of their frontline organizers. This could mean using money to offer retreats, a day at a spa once a month, or being able to purchase other products or services that could aid organizers in their individual healing work.
Second, in order to hold agencies and non-profit organizations accountable, there should be a data metric to determine the overall “holistic wellness” of their staff. Holistic wellness should be incentivized to become a much more intentional part of their organizational culture.
Third, in addition to traditional mental health resources (therapy, medication, Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups), New Yorkers need non-traditional resources, too. Sometimes, healing means being connected to green spaces, having space to talk to other people, or being able to go to the gym. It’s important that we begin to see healing as an umbrella term defined at the individual level, instead of creating “one size fits all” approaches or definitions.
Fourth and finally, what I have learned in fighting for the closure of youth prisons around the country, and working with young formerly incarcerated leaders, is this: To help people in our communities heal is to also fight for transformative racial justice and economic equity. This healing movement must be led by directly impacted people, from all walks of life, who have made the strides to undergo their own healing work.
New York City needs to heal from all the effects – medical, social, economic, and emotional – of Covid-19. We also need to heal from mass incarceration, police brutality, years of racial injustice, and so much trauma inflicted by the various failures of systems across our city. The time for a healing revolution in NYC is now.
As New York City rebuilds through the pandemic, the new mayor and City Council will need to consider a comprehensive policy agenda that recognizes the historical collective traumas that Black and Latinx communities face. This article is part of an Urban Matters series bringing together perspectives on forming such a community healing agenda and building long-term strength, vitality, and wholeness for Black and Latinx New Yorkers.