667
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

The west side community outreach pilot project: A mental health outreach initiative in urban communities of color

, , &
Pages 662-681 | Received 17 Nov 2018, Accepted 27 May 2019, Published online: 05 Jun 2019
 

ABSTRACT

In 2017, The Kennedy Forum Illinois partnered with the City of Chicago and community partners to launch the West Side Community Outreach Pilot Project, an initiative designed to bring free mental health trainings to underserved communities on Chicago’s west side. Participants self-selected from one of two broad training categories: an eight-hour Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training or a shorter Mental Health Awareness (MHA) training. Trainings were enhanced with a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) awareness component, which aimed to inform the public of the availability of specially trained law enforcement officers. A combined total of 488 training participants consented to evaluation at baseline (MHA n = 316; MHFA n = 172). For those who reported race and ethnicity, 64% (n = 275) identified as African American, while nearly 20% (n = 92) identified their ethnicity as Latinx. Analyses revealed significant within-subjects improvements for each group in reducing mental health stigma and increasing CIT knowledge. MHFA participants also demonstrated significant improvements in mental health knowledge, self-confidence, and decreased perceptions of difficulties providing aid. These findings highlight the initiative’s ability to engage participants from targeted communities and the potential effectiveness of mental health trainings with racially diverse participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a grant from The Kennedy Forum Illinois.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 206.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.