citiesRISE Youth Symposium

citiesRISE in collaboration with Basic Needs UK in Kenya held a symposium at the Multimedia University, Nairobi on 1/8/2017 targeting youth leaders in Kenya in the realm of mental health. Organizations represented at the symposium included:

• Amazing minds Africa Amazing minds Africa
• Beyond Sciences Initiatives
• Napo care
•  Nzumari Africa
•  Pacific Arts and Training
•  SOWED
•  Mental health awareness centre
•  The Mental Health organization
•  USP-Kenya
• Youth on the move
• Zwara Arts and Theatre consultancy
• Beautiful Minds

The workshop had two main objectives:

• ·         To identify the main mental health challenges young people face in Nairobi
• ·         Discuss the major barriers and opportunities to responding to these challenges

Introduction to citiesRISE

“citiesRISE is a global platform committed to transforming the state of mental health policy and practice in cities and beyond to meet the mental health needs of populations across the world, especially the youth. citiesRISE believes that cities have a central role to play in rapidly changing the current trajectory of mental health policy, practice and other related systems. It therefore exists to tackle the urgent need to improve mental health through collective action in major cities that will catalyse systemic change across sectors”. This platform is unique in that it targets critical system changes through bringing together the various strengths and expertise of diverse leaders and institutions to model and build collaborative projects that will meaningfully address mental health.

The citiesRISE youth platform was created to support the youth to become agents of change in mental health by focusing on practical effort on the ground and local collective action. citiesRISE seeks to focus on young people and youth leadership to “create awareness of mental health and mobilize other youth leaders in the field to address wide-scale stigma and prevent mental health challenges before they become chronic or disabling.

citiesRISE has three key areas of focus:

• ·         Research on the social determinants of youth mental health
• ·         Networking capacity for youth-led organizations
• ·         Mobilize funding and resources for youth-led initiatives

In terms of impact, citiesRISE focuses on four key areas:

• ·         Closing data gaps
• ·         Increasing access to mental health
• ·         Safe and effective use of technology
• ·         Eliminating stigma around mental health

Mental health challenges youth in Nairobi face

The main challenges the youth in Nairobi face with regards to mental health include:

• ·         Negative/harmful cultural beliefs – witch craft is a cause of mental illness; cultural silence around mental health  and drug/substance abuse
• ·         Lack of knowledge and information on mental health care and available services
• ·         Economic constraints affecting the day-to-day activities of the youth
• ·         Lack of data on mental health; there are no measurable parameters on mental health matters
• ·         Lack of accountability on who is supposed to address adolescent and youth mental wellbeing- is it parents or teachers and other institutions?
• ·         System failure- educational , religious and administrative institutions are shifting blame instead of directly addressing the issues around mental health presented to them
• ·         Negative approach to mental health illness and disorders

The identified challenges were grouped under four main thematic areas: Data, Access to services, Technology and Stigma. Discussions were held around the major barriers and opportunities to responding to the issues identified under the four key areas and how activities can be incorporated into the citiesRISE strategic framework in line with the ministry of health mental health priorities.

Youth leaders identified the skills they thought they would need in order to contribute to improving people’s mental health. Some of the identified skills are listed below:

• ·         Public speaking skills
• ·         Facilitation skills
• ·         Problem solving and program implementation skills
• ·         Marketing and branding skills
• ·         Proposal and report writing skills
• ·         Monitoring and evaluation skills
• ·         Effectively using social media to create mental health awareness
• ·         Entrepreneurial skills
• ·         Good communication and interpersonal skills
• ·         Pitching skills

Moving forward, citiesRISE will work with youth leaders and offer support through:

• ·         Creating exposure to other youth leaders working on mental health elsewhere to allow for cross coordinating of ideas possibly through an online convening’s
• ·         Creating shared commitments- a global voice of young people together.
• ·         Providing technical and leadership support to youth-led initiatives
• ·         Organizing skills development workshops for youth leaders
• ·         Profiling to ensure that all youth leaders are aware of what other youth-led organizations are doing

N/B: The citiesRISE Nairobi youth platform was created to allow like-minded youth leaders stay connected, collectively work towards tackling stigma associated with mental health and create awareness in the country. Youth leaders also use the platform to organize monthly convening’s and other activities addressing mental health.

Written by: Cynthia Buku, Basic Needs UK in Kenya Youth Fellow