Zine Addresses Mental Health Challenges [Sponsored]

Coachella Valley Youth Publish ‘Zine’ to Address Mental Health Challenges [Sponsored]

Childhood and adolescence are the most formative and impressionable years of a person’s life.  It is a time when the development of good mental health is critically important for establishing good health overall and well-being throughout life.

In the United States, almost 20% of young people ages 3-17 grapple with a mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder, according to the 2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. The report, which was published by the National Institutes of Health, also shows that suicidal behaviors increased more than 40 percent among high school students in the decade before 2019.

An organization that is bringing awareness to the issue in the Coachella Valley is the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI). The institute recently released a zine — short for magazine — that addresses behavioral and mental health challenges in both digital and print formats. Created by youths who are involved with the institute, the publication is titled “Mental Health Matters/La Salud Mental Importa,” and features English and Spanish text.

The zine centers “a culmination of conversations about the issues most impacting youth across the unincorporated Eastern Coachella Valley,” Fahad Qurashi, YLI chief program officer, said in a written statement. “This zine is, in part, a testament to young people speaking out on their own ideas of what community, support, and change mean to them.”

Readers will discover inside the publication findings from youth-led research and stories with the end goal of advocating for better mental health support.  “In order to change community conditions and amplify community voice, it is critical to build community power.,” Qurashi said.

Read the zine. It is the result of a two-year grant from the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation, and stems from a project called Youth Voice in Mental Health.

The Youth Leadership Institute has been an integral community partner in the District and Foundation’s collaborative response to COVID-19.  Learn more about YLI.