[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]August is Diversity Awareness Month. The Steve Fund believes in the fundamental importance of diversity awareness for supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of all young people, including students of color. Research shows that differences in the ethnic background of students require culturally-sensitive approaches to fully support their mental health and emotional well-being. In other words, these differences require an awareness of diversity. The Steve Fund takes a multi-pronged approach to fostering diversity awareness and understanding. Here are just three examples:
- The Stephen C. Rose Legacy Scholarships promote the emotional well-being and mental health of youth in ethnically diverse communities. By supporting competitive scholarships for research on the mental health challenges facing college students of color from a variety of backgrounds, the Fund is supporting the growth of a generation of scholars with knowledge and capacity to address the mental health needs of our target population. The Steve Fund recently announced two new winners of Stephen C. Rose Legacy Scholarships: The winner of the 2016 Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) Stephen C. Rose Scholarship is Ming-Che Tu, currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Counseling Program of the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. The winner of the 2016 Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) Stephen C. Rose Scholarship is Effua Sosoo, who this fall will be a second-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Learn more here.
- The Steve Fund is partnering with Crisis Text Line to use text messaging as a means to improve the critically needed access for young people of color to crisis counseling. The Fund views text messaging as a key component of its strategy towards addressing the unmet mental health needs of this population. Through this partnership, we will recruit, select, and train a group of young people of color to become crisis counselors with the Crisis Text Line. Are you a person of color. Feeling down, stressed or overwhelmed? Text STEVE to 741741 and a live, trained Crisis Counselor will receive the text and respond to you quickly to provide support. The volunteer Crisis Counselor will help you move from a hot moment to a cool moment. Learn more here.
- The JED Foundation (JED) and the Steve Fund, two leading mental health organizations, are working on a set of recommendations to provide colleges and universities with recommended practices for improving support for the mental health and emotional well-being of America’s college students of color. We expect to release the recommendation later this year. Learn more about the partnership here.
To receive updates on the Steve Fund’s effort to increase diversity awareness and improve the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color, please sign up for updates here.
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