Mental Health for Students of Color: A First-of-Its-Kind Nonprofit Expands Support
The Steve Fund, established in memory of Stephen C. Rose, is the nation’s first nonprofit dedicated to improving mental health and emotional well-being for students of color. After a year of building partnerships, convening researchers and practitioners, and surveying the research landscape, the Fund has announced new initiatives timed with World Mental Health Day (October 10) to deepen support for students of color across colleges and universities.
Research indicates that culturally responsive approaches are essential to effectively support the mental health of students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Yet these needs remain understudied and underserved. The Steve Fund’s mission is to expand knowledge, develop best practices, and raise awareness among students, families, higher education leaders, clinicians, and policymakers so that institutions can provide sensitive, effective support.
- A text/SMS crisis support line in partnership with Crisis Text Line
- A collaboration with the JED Foundation to produce guidelines and recommended practices for colleges to better support students of color
- The Steve Fund’s second national conference on the mental health of students of color, to be held at Stanford University on November 20, 2015
“Research shows that differences in the ethnic background of students require culturally sensitive approaches to fully support their mental health and emotional well-being,” says Stephanie Bell-Rose, co-founder of The Steve Fund and mother of Stephen C. Rose. “But these needs are understudied and underserved.”
Available studies and surveys highlight disparities in how students of color experience and respond to mental health challenges. Students of color are often less likely to seek help for depression or anxiety and report greater exposure to microaggressions than their white peers. A Harris poll found that students of color are nearly twice as likely to feel insufficiently prepared to handle the stresses of higher education. According to a College Board report (page 5), only 49% of African American students complete a four-year college degree, compared with 71% of white, non-Hispanic students—an outcome that underscores the importance of addressing emotional and mental health barriers to academic success.
“All we have is anecdotal data when it comes to the mental health determinants for students of color,” says Dr. Alfiee M. Breland-Noble, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University. “You would be hard-pressed to find any large-scale, rigorously conducted research.” The Steve Fund aims to close that gap by supporting research, convening experts, and translating findings into practical approaches for campus mental health services.
In its first year, The Steve Fund convened top mental health scientists and college administrators at a national conference at Brown University and hosted a series of well-attended expert webinars. The Fund has also assembled a multidisciplinary advisory team to review existing research and guide its priorities and programming. Materials from the symposium, including webinars and videos, are available on the Fund’s website.
To broaden access to crisis support, The Steve Fund has partnered with Crisis Text Line to recruit, select, and train young people of color as volunteer crisis counselors. This collaboration will create a keyword tailored for communities of young people of color, providing free, 24/7 access to confidential crisis support via text messaging. The service was scheduled to launch in winter 2015.
The Fund’s partnership with the JED Foundation—an established national nonprofit focused on emotional health and suicide prevention for young adults and college students—will produce a comprehensive set of recommended practices for college leaders, counselors, faculty, and families. These guidelines are intended to help institutions build culturally informed prevention, early intervention, and support strategies that reach students from underrepresented backgrounds as well as the broader student population.
Evan Rose, Stephen Rose’s brother, a technology entrepreneur and president of The Steve Fund, emphasizes the broader national importance of this work: “JED has an impressive record of accomplishment in its work with colleges on behalf of students, and together we will build and implement a program that reaches students from every background, especially those who are underrepresented in our higher education system.” He adds, “With minorities projected to form the majority of Americans and an increasing share of children, the future success of our nation depends on the mental health and emotional well-being of all student populations—and on colleges and universities providing appropriate, culturally sensitive support.”
The Steve Fund continues to grow its resources and programming to support students, institutions, and communities. Webinars, conference materials, and information about the Fund’s initiatives, including the Crisis Text Line collaboration and the JED Foundation partnership, are available on the Fund’s website. The Fund will convene its second national conference at Stanford University on November 20, 2015, to continue advancing research, practice, and policy that support the mental health of students of color.