Mental Health and Wellbeing at African Youth Collective

Mental health is often described as a person's emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, act, cope with challenges, build relationships, and make decisions in everyday life.

At African Youth Collective (AYC), we understand that mental health is an important issue affecting many young people and families within our communities. Over the years, we have witnessed increasing concerns about young people becoming disconnected from family, culture, education, employment, and positive community influences. These challenges have led to many discussions within our community about how we can better support our young people before they reach crisis point.

While we acknowledge that mental health can be approached through clinical services, counselling, and professional interventions, our experience has shown that these approaches do not always work for everyone. Many young people from African backgrounds often face barriers when accessing support, including language differences, cultural misunderstandings, and a lack of connection with the people providing the service.

In many cases, there is no shared cultural understanding, no traditional values being incorporated, and no meaningful connection to the individual's identity, family, or community. This can leave young people feeling misunderstood and disconnected from the very support systems intended to help them.