Welcome to Beyond The Bell podcast where you get an inside look into school life. We cover school related topics that support your child's education and well being. As you listen along, we hope you'll gain insights for navigating school with your child and leave with a deeper sense of connection between school and home. Here's your host, Chantelle Quesnelle. 

Hello, Simcoe Muskoka families, and welcome to Community Connect, a special mini series of Beyond The Bell. I'm Chantelle Quesnelle, and in this series, we're highlighting some of the many organizations and services available to support families across Simcoe Muskoka.

Our school board is committed to building strong community connections and there are amazing local organizations and resources available throughout our communities. We're excited to feature a few of them on this special miniseries. 

While the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board values the relationships and support provided by organizations featured in this special podcast, it is important for listeners to know that those opinions expressed are those of the individual guests and community mental health partners being interviewed. They do not necessarily reflect the official policies, positions or views of our board. Listeners are encouraged to connect directly with the featured organizations for more detailed information or specific guidance. 

Now, let's dive in.

Chantelle: Today, we are talking about supporting the mental health of black youth. Um And we have our guest here, Natasha Shakespeare. Natasha grew up in Simcoe County in a rural, predominantly white community. After her own child experienced the same types of anti-black racism that Natasha experienced as a child, Natasha founded the nonprofit organization, Parents Against Racism Simcoe County. 

Natasha completed her master's degree in education, curriculum and instruction, has two college diplomas, one in police foundations and the other in behavioural sciences and multiple certificates.

Natasha: Thank you so much. 

Chantelle: I'm really excited to have you here today and I thought we'd start off by talking about a new program available to Black Children and Youth in Simcoe County called the Harambe Program. Can you tell us more about that? 

Natasha: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. It has been amazing. It is new. We're just about to wrap up our, um our first cohort. And we were able to fund this program by the County of Cisco,uh county of Simcoe. We were successful in getting this gift grant and you know, basically this, this program came about because of the work that we do in the community as someone who is black and you're experiencing a mental health concern crisis, various degrees of what it may look like, and you go out into the community to get help or support with that, you are going to have different challenges, and one being that it will be hard to find someone that looks like you to provide that support. And that's really, really important. 

About a year ago, I was on a uh a workshop, or a seminar and it was really specifically for mental health practitioners, which I'm not specifically, but I was really interested how they were teaching the perspective of culturally -ffirming care um from the black community or for folks who identify as black. and how do you go about doing that? And if it was run by someone that was a black psychologist and a lot of folks on that call were, were white,  and you know, practitioners. And I love the question that one of the, one of the psychologists had asked and it was around, um she was a white woman. She said identify as a white woman. And the challenges that I have is sometimes when I have black youth that come to see me, um their parents are really advocating for, we need a black mental health professional or black psychologist and they're hard to find that's the reality.

And sometimes the youth are saying, well, it doesn't really matter. And what was interesting about how the person responded, and I completely agree is that, you know, of course, you always want to consider what the youth is saying. You want to value their opinion. So it's really tricky to have that conversation with, with, with you because you still want to validate their thoughts, right? But you, the way that they explained is you have to understand that black youth, as many youth, may not fully understand um the weight of everything that's happening and the impacts of everything.

And you as a white practitioner, how can you best have a conversation or authentically have a conversation around things like um how they can face racism in school? You know, what can they do about that? Um how can they be prepared for when a caregiver, whether it be a teacher, whether it be some other caring adult um is discriminatory against them. Um you know, how can you prepare them to have a conversation for when they go for a job interview and they face antiblack criticism when you know, they look at their name and they're like, oh yeah, we can't really pronounce that. Um can you come up with something different or are you sure you're going to fit in here? Like there's so many things, how do you help them navigate that when you don't have that lived experience? And um there are things that, you know, even if you take this culturally affirming workshop, you know, that you may have a more hypersensitivity to, you don't have the little experience and things will go missed, right? And how are you going to be able to navigate those things when you don't have that level of awareness that comes with the experience? 

And the psychologist was like, “oh,” right? Um, and that's what they talk about, you know, when you talk about disparities of those differences in care that some folks, you know, just don't have to think about because it isn't something that is their lived experience and it's so, so, so important. 

Chantelle: Yeah. And I, I think you, you really highlighted how complicated it, it can be the importance of ongoing, um, professional learning for clinicians who are supporting black youth. And the recognition of how um you know, what is um necessary as a foundation still might not be, you know, everything that that, that that youth needs because there are going to be those challenges,um and the that, that the youth might, might face, that the family might face in accessing that support. Um and even with that ongoing professional learning and training about culturally and identity affirming care, we still need to think about pathways to support um for black youth provided by black clinicians and professionals, um and what that looks like. And, and that's one of the, the needs that the program is trying to address. So can you tell us more about how that program works and, and what that service looks like now that it's up and running?

Natasha: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so there's two parts to the Harambe program, there's a tutoring component, um and then there also is a mental health component. Of course, we'll focus on the mental health pieces for today. 

Um So the there's kind of two streams of support. We're able to access um sessions to family with one, a one on one therapist. And then we also have like a group model.

Chantelle: If, if we have like, I'm, we have families that are listening right now that may or may not have heard of, of the program or are now thinking about, you know, navigating pathways and maybe what they, what they may, what that conversation might look like with their child or youth when they're thinking about um how to find a clinician, what factors to consider and what options are available. And so um sharing some information for the, with the listeners about how to access the program and anything that might be different or unique about that program um in comparison to other services that could be offered um accessed in the community. 

Natasha: Right. Right. Um I mean, I think what makes uh the Harambe program unique is that uh it's culturally affirming. And what we mean by that is there is a lot of care and attention that has gone into um picking black therapist um with different backgrounds and um with different frameworks of being able to support the black community, it can be talk-therapy if you want it to be, but it doesn't have to look like that. And especially with the group model, you know, we're bringing black youth together and we do have a framework that we're following. But you have to understand that mental health from some black communities again, isn't like we sit down and we go around the circle and we all share our thoughts and feelings, that mental health support can actually just be having black youth in a space together can be so empowering.

Chantelle: Creating community.

Natasha: Um creating community, creating networks. And again, the reality of Simcoe County is that isn't a given. And for some folks, you know, you may not think about that if you walk into the space and you just see everyone that looks like you, it's just natural for you don't think about it. But unfortunately, for our black youth that is rare, um we just have, did our first like feedback about the sessions and things that have been going on and that is really resonating to us to go into the space where it's, everyone looks like you, it is so empowering and it's been so um just life changing for these youth because that isn't the norm, right?

Really, when we're putting this together, we're thinking about all the, all these little things, you know, the, the books that we use, the notebooks that we use the pictures on the notebooks. Like again, representation is everywhere in this space so that the youth can see that they can see themselves reflected everywhere they look and everything that that is happening in terms of accessing the supports, it's easy to fill out the intake form um and we are pausing for the summer, like I said, we are just wrapping up our first cohort and then we're looking at starting back up in September. So of course, we are encouraging folks to um still fill out the intake and then we'll be reaching out closer to September to, to look at what that looks like and then start the second cohort. 

Chantelle: That's amazing. I think, you know, as you were sharing about the groups and, and creating community, um I've, I've got to spend some time working with the Black Student Alliance at Saint Joe's, so just shout out to them really quickly. Um But in my work with them, I've got to witness, um I've had the privilege to witness, they allowed me to witness the community that they've created, um and uh the community that they sustain. Um and, and how they've, how they've done that has been really inspiring. And although we haven't in, in our kind of work together, talked about the mental health, like impacts in terms of um some of the strengths that having that community at their school brings to them. Um You can, you can feel it in the room um with them and yeah, it's a vibe. It's such a vibe. It is! Um and yeah, I don't, I think the witnessing of it is very powerful, um And so the experience of it would be um certainly amplified for all those youth to have that and I know that's um the BSAs or a version of that is not in all of our schools, but the ones that it is, I think um do create that community. And it's also really important to have that community outside of the school setting because being within the school setting creates another set of dynamics for lots of different reasons.

And so the impact of having that type of mental health support or um community creation outside of, of education is, is huge. And I know there's a couple of organizations locally doing that, you know, I think about Shaq's world potentially and um Uplift Black and, and those places as well. But the importance of that, 

Natasha: You know, there are some things happening. I think going in the right direction in terms of people are curious or having a little more level awareness of OK, well, how do I be more culture aware, what is meant by culturally affirming support? And you know, people are trying to work on that and you know, that work just needs to be ongoing, right? We see some of those things happening but it's not like a one time thing. And, and you know, we've probably all taken a workshop on something. We don't immediately do like a 180 our behavior changes myself included, I'm still learning and I'm learning on lots of things, right? So um I guess we always say that it's work, it's work for everybody, right?

We all should be in here doing this work and having these conversations, and start them young! We have had families come to us where their kids are in preschool and daycare and they have faced anti-black racism or discrimination. So if you know, kids are facing it that young and experiencing it that young, we gotta have, start the conversations young, right? And as uncomfortable as it may be, listen, this, I still get uncomfortable talking about certain things, but we power through and like I own that, you know, just, hey, I'm not sure how to answer that. Let's figure that out or I don't, you know, we know you're not going to have all the answers, but it's important to have those conversations.

Chantelle: And it's such an opportunity. I know, you know, the conversations that I've had with my kids when they're still young, and so when they ask them, those, those types of kind of questions, it's an opportunity for like that early work to happen, right? When they're asking and then we're talking and thinking about it together and getting curious and reflecting and learning when we need to do some learning together or unlearning whatever that might be, that, that, that's like modeling and getting into that work, that reflection together, which I think really helps support um our kids as well, right? 

Natasha: Absolutely. And I think like allowing our kids to be curious, um I, you know, we talk about like, at home, hopefully is a safe space, right? And I realize it isn't for everybody and, but the hope is that you want your kids if they're going to say something that's off the cuff, that's offensive. Like, yeah, say it at home so we can work through that and like, not shame them like, ok, well, can you, you know where, why do you think that, where is that coming from?

And again, like having that conversation and allowing them to have that thought and work through it? So that again, you can come to, ok, actually, this is, this is a better thought or um this is how you can go about it and then you're giving them that to hopefully practice in the world, right? And then also in doing that too, we are um I think just um being considerate of our own child's like mental health, right? If we are like shaming them and um for having a thought or coming in to be open to us, like, what's the impact of them? Of course, we want to think of our own kids as well and I can just facilitate a really like open and positive space so we can have those hard, curious, whatever kinds of conversations, right? 

Chantelle: One of the things that I wanted to, to talk a little bit about and I think we've talked about it already in, in some respects about like creating community and sometimes when we, like you said, when we talk about mental health, we think about like intervention, like counseling, therapy, for example. Um, but in, in school mental health, we do talk about kind of, you know, um mental health promotion as the foundation and that includes school climate, um that includes um connection and belonging at school. And then we kind of move into that layer of like prevention, early intervention of mental health challenges. And then it's only at the top of that model, the triangle that we think about intervention um such as counseling, for example. Um, but oftentimes that's where our brain goes, right? And so I think it's really important to think about all of the things that we've talked about today, creating community, connecting with community partners, doing that learning and unlearning and having those curious conversations and being compassionate, being open to, to those conversations with our, with our kids, um really does create work on that foundational level of mental health, promotion of connection and belonging. Um whether we're working with our black children and youth and families working on that work or whether we're, we're looking at supporting our um white children and youth or whatever kind of racial identity and background where we're thinking about connection and belonging and understanding. I think those conversations are, are just so important in addressing that foundation. 

Natasha: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, I think a lot of us will jump to that top of the pyramid of like, oh intervention. But like you said, there's so many things that could be happening, I guess, preventatively. Right. 

Chantelle: Absolutely. Well, that's wonderful. I think we're very lucky to have you, Natasha and PARSC in Simcoe County. And thanks for all the work that you do. 

Natasha: Thank you. 

Chantelle: And so maybe if you can share just quickly with the listeners, if they're not kind of at a computer right now, what website do they go to, to access that intake form? 

Natasha: Sure. Um Our website I think is pretty easy. So,  parsc.ca, so www dot P A R S C, dot C A, is probably the best spot to find all of our intake forms.

Um And just to share with the community again, is noticing gaps is uh we are starting in June, the Black Fathers Alliance. So this is specifically a group for black dads as they face unique challenges in the community. And we have found there isn't a space just for them so they can show up being their authentic selves, be in a safe space and share and do whatever they need to do. Um And we also will be starting a black woman's group as well, um empowering peace and it's a black woman's anxiety group. So that's something that will be starting um in the summer as well. 

Chantelle: It's been wonderful having you on the podcast and I really hope that this episode has been helpful for families in Simoe Muskoka Catholic to really think about and reflect on the importance of mental health support specifically for black youth, uh children and youth and families in our community. And yeah, I just want to thank you again so much for being on our show today, Natasha. 

Natasha: Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. 

Thanks for listening to Beyond The Bell podcast. We hope you found today's episode helpful. Beyond The Bell is brought to you by the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board and our Catholic Parent Involvement Committee. It's hosted by Chantelle Quesnelle. Pauline Stevenson is our Executive Producer. Episodes are produced and edited by Portage Creative. You can find our show notes in previous episodes on our podcast website beyondthebell.ca. If you like today's episode, leave us a review. If you have any suggestions for future episodes or any questions or comments about Beyond The Bell Podcast, you can send an email to info@smcdsb.on.ca. Thanks again for joining us.

We'll see you next time.