How to help youth in my community

Dear Fatima,

I’ve recently realized (both through people directly telling me about their problems and through my observation of people’s behaviors) that a lot of the youth in my community seem to be struggling with depression and/or low self esteem.

While there are likely some underlying problems in their lives that has led them to this point, I think the youth in my community could benefit from some kind of a lecture and open forum about mental health issues and simple ways of dealing with them (I realize there is no simple way of dealing with these things, but I think having someone tell them that they are not alone, and maybe giving them some strategies for staying positive and getting help when they need it would be a good start). Do you know of any Muslim communities that have had such an event? Are there any mental health professionals/speakers that I could potentially contact about organizing an event? I’m not really sure how to go about doing this but I just feel like these youth are struggling and someone needs to do something about it.

Thanks for your help.

Note from Stones to Bridges: Thank you so much for re-emphasizing such a critical need. May Allah bless you for your desire to help the youth in your community! In addition to the avenues Fatima mentions below, we at Stones to Bridges will continue to work to identify and provide additional community based resources. In the meantime, we are happy to provide you materials to do a short 5 minute presentation at your local mosque or youth group event to inform your community of some struggles our youth are facing and that they can come to Stones to Bridges for support. Please email us at info@stonestobridges.org if you’d like to join our effort of raising awareness in your community.

Assalamu ‘alaykum,

You raise a great point and it takes a bit of courage to have these very needed conversations in many masaajid.

There are several Muslim communities across the U.S. that have started programs to address the issues you raise. Many begin with forming partnerships with local and state agencies whose mission it is to education communities about bullying, mental health, and substance use. Often these agencies are affiliated with the local Department of Health and Human Services, or Department of Social Services, and they have prepared presentations that they can often deliver in a workshop format.

Other useful partnerships are with mental health not-for-profits or mental health professionals in private practice. This allows the masjid community to start hearing about topics from experts who can discuss them in detail and answer their questions. If you find your community has resistance to holding such events, sometimes they can held less directly — for example, one could organize a workshop about caring for an elderly parent and have panelists that will talk about (1) services available through the county, (2) medical considerations, (3) mental health and family health considerations, etc. That way the mental health issues get folded into a larger conversation where they make sense.

Some communities have set up mentorship programs, and used that opportunity to train the mentors on how to identify depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc., and what to do in those circumstances to get the young person help.

Great resources are available through the Islamic Social Services Association of the USA, and through MuslimMentalHealth.com

Hopefully that gives you some places to start looking.

Wa ‘alaykum salam

Your sister in Islam,
“Fatima Z”

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Note from Stones to Bridges: Thank you so much for re-emphasizing such a critical need. May Allah bless you for your desire to help the youth in your community! In addition to the avenues Fatima mentioned, we at Stones to Bridges will continue to work to identify and provide additional community based resources. In the meantime, we are happy to provide you materials to do a short 5 minute presentation at your local mosque or youth group event to inform your community of some struggles our youth are facing and that they can come to Stones to Bridges for support.