OUR WHY
According to The Wallace Foundation, the arts can provide valuable and culturally affirming developmental spaces for youth of color in the U.S. The arts are central to culture and represent important learning capacities that enhance development. Despite what we know about the power of arts learning (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014), youth of color are less likely to have access to high-quality arts programs in their schools (Rabkin & Hedberg, 2011). Fewer arts learning opportunities in schools led to the proliferation of community-based programs that fill the gap related to arts learning. Many programs also offer culturally rooted experiences that reflect the experiences of youth in communities served. For decades, such programs have offered culturally sustaining, high-quality arts programs during out-ofschool time (See Bushnell, 1970). Fortunately, these community based programs provide arts learning experiences that can support youth development and provide culturally centered experiences that can enhance identity development for youth of color. However, these programs have yet to be conceptualized and researched in any systematic way.
Culture-centered community-based youth arts programs can provide youth of color with opportunities for belonging, identity affirmation, and skill development, ultimately fostering well-being and positive developmental trajectories. Our study demonstrates that youth often experience positive emotions, joy, and a sense of accomplishment, enhancing their confidence and sense of significance through engagement in the arts. CCYA programs intentionally integrate cultural connections and promote representation, offering a pathway for youth to envision a more just society while feeling valued and seen. Mattering is feeling valued by self and others (Marshall, 2001). It is a sense of significance or importance (Elliott et al., 2004). Experiences of mattering inform well-being and can shape youth’s selfconcept and future aspirations. This happens through the transformative power of the arts as experienced in community-based youth programs that center youth of color. As a limitation in our study, programs represented a purposeful sample not representative of the general population of youth arts programs. Additionally, our study does not delineate specific mechanisms for the identified well-being outcomes. Additional studies can more thoroughly and systematically understand the outcomes for youth in these programs. Further research might help us understand the impact of these programs in communicating the message of mattering to marginalized youth.
Youth of color need developmentally appropriate spaces in which to create, express, exhibit, and enact their multifaceted identities. Unfortunately, educational spaces that serve youth of color often stifle expression and creativity through emphasis on standardized tests and academic achievement (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006). The removal of arts from schools attended by youth of color can dehumanize youth by limiting the vision for learning to academically rigorous curricula that address perceived failures in educational proficiency. Community based youth programs offer a space that research continually finds to be psychologically safe (and brave) and that prioritize adult-youth relationships—i.e., a supportive space both for art exploration and wellbeing. Community-based programs that emphasize high-quality arts learning (also called creative youth development; Montgomery, 2016) are uniquely valuable because of what we know about arts as enhancing human capacity for learning (Halverson, 2021). Art is a cultural artifact, and our society needs spaces that celebrate and nurture the arts as a cornerstone of the human experience. Artistically inclined or interested youth, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or school district, deserve spaces in which to develop interests in the arts and grow as artists. As arts learning opportunities decreased in schools that serve Black and Latino youth, programs burgeoned to meet the holistic needs of youth through arts programming that was humanizing, culturally sustaining, and responsive to the needs of communities of color (Akiva et al., 2024). Research also shows that the arts, as an avenue for creative learning, can support agency and awareness and lead to deep engagement within communities (Montgomery, 2016; Ngo et al., 2017; MacDonald et al., 2020). Accordingly, youth of color may benefit greatly when arts learning happens in culture-sustaining environments that center their identities and experiences as central in the learning experience. Integrating culture, community, and the arts, we sought to understand programs that engage youth of color in creative communities that foster youth thriving and future possibilities. In this study, we examine culture-centered, community-based youth arts (CCYA) programs as vibrant spaces for arts-involved youth of color.
According to the 2024 State of Mental Health in America Report, the U.S. is indeed in a mental health crisis, according to MHA’s analysis. Nearly 60 million adults (23.08%) experienced a mental illness in the past year. Among other worrisome findings, nearly 13 million adults (5.04%) reported serious thoughts of suicide. The number of individuals who died by suicide in 2022 was the highest number ever recorded in the U.S., up after slight decreases in 2019 and 2020.
The nation’s youth continue to present cause for concern. One in five young people from ages 12-17 experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year, yet more than half of them (56.1%) did not receive any mental health treatment. More than 3.4 million youth (13.16%) had serious thoughts of suicide.
More than 45 million adults (17.82%) and 2.3 million youth (8.95%) are experiencing a substance use disorder.
“We are living in a time of polycrisis when evidence shows that the need for mental health care is urgent. High numbers of adults and youth alike are having serious thoughts of suicide, following a year with a record high number for completed suicides, substance use is on the rise, and other indicators of distress and disparity continue to escalate. And yet obstacles such as high costs or a shortage of mental health providers prevent so many Americans from accessing the help they need,” said Schroeder Stribling, president and CEO of MHA. “Mental Health America continues to advocate for policy and practice improvements that focus on upstream prevention and early intervention so that all people—as they deserve—have an opportunity to recover and flourish.”
Barriers to obtaining mental health treatment persist nationwide. Nearly 6 million adults (10.1%) with a mental illness are uninsured, compared with 9.3% of adults without a mental illness. One in four (24.58%) adults who experienced 14 or more mentally unhealthy days each month were unable to see a doctor due to costs—a 2% increase over previous data.
The shortage in mental health provider availability certainly doesn’t help. Data show there are 340 people for every one mental health provider. More than 122 million people live in a mental health workforce shortage area, with only 27% of the mental health care needs in shortage areas being met.
“It is critical that we increase the affordability and availability of mental health care so people experiencing behavioral health conditions can access the care they want,” said Maddy Reinert, senior director of population health at MHA. “But that won’t fully address why people are experiencing distress in the first place. To reduce the negative impact of the mental health crisis, states must invest in a public health approach focused on prevention of mental distress and promotion of well-being.”
References: