Young Leaders Tackle Key Issues That Affect Black Children and Families’ Well-being

In its third annual Juneteenth webinar, Child Trends highlighted the work of five young leaders (ages 30 and under) who are dedicated to addressing key issues that disproportionately impact the Black community: housing, gun violence, maternal health, youth mental health, and community engagement in research.

Panelists drew on their lived and professional experiences in discussing the relevance of these issues for the well-being of Black children, youth, and families. Below, we briefly describe the issues and lay out what our panelists—Zonnie Thompson, Luis Hernandez, Marshara Fross, PhD, Rachel Warren, and Jha’Niyah Holland—are doing to tackle them.

Housing is a multifaceted issue that affects the health and safety of millions of Americans. Black Americans disproportionately feel the impact of not having a safe and secure place to live due to poverty, segregation, and housing discrimination. In fact, 50 percent of families with children who experienced being unhoused in 2023 were Black.

• Seeing the impacts of housing insecurity in California motivated Zonnie Thompson to get involved in community organizing for housing justice. As part of the Reinvent South Stockton Coalition, he champions tenant rights, advocates for rigorous and precise counting of the unhoused population, and works to revitalize disinvested neighborhoods and increase community pride.

Community gun violence—intentional acts of violence committed with a firearm driven by personal or group conflicts—has recently been declared part of a public health crisis by the U.S. surgeon general. Black Americans are especially impacted, particularly Black boys and young men.

• As a survivor of gun violence, Luis Hernandez, founder of Youth Over Guns, is familiar with the effects of such violence on individuals’ health and well-being, and he knows the supports needed for people who have experienced it. His organization has been at the vanguard of expanding funding to support violence prevention and intervention efforts in New York City, with special attention to the needs of Black and Brown youth.

The maternal health crisis in the United States largely impacts Black women and birthing people, who are three times as likely as their White counterparts to die from pregnancy-related causes. In Florida, it’s nearly four times as likely.

• After having a traumatic birth experience, Marshara Fross, PhD, dedicated her career to improving Black perinatal health outcomes through research and advocacy. Of note, she founded Tampa Bay’s Black Maternal Health Week Initiative to raise awareness of the crisis and advocate for meaningful change.

Youth mental health challenges are of increasing concern for families, educators, and public officials. Indeed, growing suicide rates among Black youth led the Congressional Black Caucus to release the 2020 report, Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America.

• Minnesota’s Reimagine Black Youth Mental Health initiative, coordinated by Rachel Warren, is responding to the issues raised in the report. The initiative’s goal is to improve the mental well-being of Black youth and families and expand the approach to mental health through strategies that are youth-led, adult-supported, and community-driven.

Community-engaged research can take a variety of forms, but aims to better serve Black communities and other underserved groups whose voices are often muted by traditional research approaches. At its best, it provides communities with opportunities to co-create new knowledge that informs the policies and practices that directly affect them.

• As a research assistant for Three3 (pronounced ThreeCubed) in Knoxville, Tennessee, Jha’Niyah Holland has been at the forefront of a study to develop health equity portraits for over 100 individuals in 17 counties in East Tennessee. These portraits will enable policymakers and practitioners to better understand and address community health inequities and their social determinants from the perspectives of those most impacted.

Finally, while tackling different issues, the panelists emphasized common themes central to the success of their work. They highlighted the importance of intergenerational approaches that connect youth and adults around a shared purpose. They also stressed the need to center Black children and families in their work—despite facing resistance in doing so. Seeking to impact both policy and professional practice, the leaders discussed the significance of building networks with elected officials and communities to create significant and lasting change. Additionally, they underscored the need for robust, transparent, and actionable data to establish clear goals, document trends, and evaluate best practices.

We invite you to view the webinar to learn more about and be inspired by these leaders’ work. To pique your interest, we share selected quotes that embody the deep faith, sense of purpose, and reimagined futures that motivate them.