In its third annual Juneteenth webinar, Child Trends highlighted the work of five young leaders (ages 30 and under) who are dedicated to addressing key issues that disproportionately impact the Black community: housing, gun violence, maternal health, youth mental health, and community engagement in research.
Panelists drew on their lived and professional experiences in discussing the relevance of these issues for the well-being of Black children, youth, and families. Below, we briefly describe the issues and lay out what our panelists—Zonnie Thompson, Luis Hernandez, Marshara Fross, PhD, Rachel Warren, and Jha’Niyah Holland—are doing to tackle them.
Housing is a multifaceted issue that affects the health and safety of millions of Americans. Black Americans disproportionately feel the impact of not having a safe and secure place to live due to poverty, segregation, and housing discrimination. In fact, 50 percent of families with children who experienced being unhoused in 2023 were Black.
- Seeing the impacts of housing insecurity in California motivated Zonnie Thompson to get involved in community organizing for housing justice. As part of the Reinvent South Stockton Coalition, he champions tenant rights, advocates for rigorous and precise counting of the unhoused population, and works to revitalize disinvested neighborhoods and increase community pride.
Community gun violence—intentional acts of violence committed with a firearm driven by personal or group conflicts—has recently been declared part of a public health crisis by the U.S. surgeon general. Black Americans are especially impacted, particularly Black boys and young men.
- As a survivor of gun violence, Luis Hernandez, founder of Youth Over Guns, is familiar with the effects of such violence on individuals’ health and well-being, and he knows the supports needed for people who have experienced it. His organization has been at the vanguard of expanding funding to support violence prevention and intervention efforts in New York City, with special attention to the needs of Black and Brown youth.
Youth mental health challenges are of increasing concern for families, educators, and public officials. Indeed, growing suicide rates among Black youth led the Congressional Black Caucus to release the 2020 report, Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America.
- Minnesota’s Reimagine Black Youth Mental Health initiative, coordinated by Rachel Warren, is responding to the issues raised in the report. The initiative’s goal is to improve the mental well-being of Black youth and families and expand the approach to mental health through strategies that are youth-led, adult-supported, and community-driven.