CPNYC Honors Mental Health Awareness Month

In the summer of 2009, Children of Promise, NYC opened its doors in Brooklyn, New York. I was so proud and excited to offer a safe environment for children who had a mother or father, and for some even both parents incarcerated. My vision was to work with my new staff and provide fun cultural and recreational activities for the children to enjoy themselves, bond with each other and the team, and hopefully fill the void they experienced not having their parent in the household.

That first summer, my colleagues and I experienced daily fights among the children, violent outbursts, tantrums, crying, and some children did not speak at all. The level of intensity the children brought to the building everyday was nothing that we anticipated. We expected there might be some fights that we would have to break up, but I spent most of my time dealing with conflict and having to talk one-on-one or with groups of children who showed behavioral patterns that we did not have the professional mental health training to address.

I quickly understood that our young people were living with trauma, anxiety, PTSD, and depression. We saw such a strong pattern of behavior that we began to refer them to local clinicians for therapy sessions. Many of the children’s caregivers were resistant to mental health services, and the children did not trust leaving our building and talking to strangers. But I was determined to provide mental health support and I knew instinctively that if I were going to sustain and grow the work of CPNYC, I would have to establish a mental health clinic onsite.

Recognizing the unique emotional trauma and profound psychological consequences children experience in association with the adverse childhood experience (ACE) of losing a parent to incarceration, CPNYC has successfully developed an innovative model – the only one of its kind in New York City – which co-locates a licensed mental health clinic and children’s center, while also offering a comprehensive array of youth development programming in our Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and South Bronx locations.

Having a mental health clinic onsite and embedded within Black and Brown neighborhoods can significantly heal a community: in comparison to the general population, Black and Brown communities have significantly less access to and awareness of evidence-based mental health services due to structural racism.

CPNYC’s mental health model is a holistic multi-service approach which is tailored to each child’s individual strengths and challenges. It offers a unique, uplifting environment specifically designed to foster hope and resilience; strengthen social and emotional development; and provide a pathway for young people to become lifelong learners, creators, and advocates and be positioned to achieve successful outcomes. Successful outcomes means that we are empowering young people to be change agents in their families, their communities, and their world. It means opening young eyes that were once shut due to family incarceration, poverty, and hardship to see opportunities all around them and be a part of justice transformation.

We are bent on changing the narrative from at-risk to full-of-potential, and from breaking the cycle to healing brokenness and building up our young people to make an impact in their community and beyond.

As many organizations promote Mental Health Awareness this month, at CPNYC we are on the frontlines in Brooklyn and the Bronx working with our young people and their families through a lens of understanding that the trauma of incarceration, poverty, and parental separation must be addressed. We will continue this critical work to strengthen our community, and we are open to partnering with those who share our vision and believe in our mission and work.

Keeping the Promise
Sharon Content
Founder & CEO
Children of Promise, NYC