The Vulnerable Minds of Bayview’s Black Youth
Mental Health Awareness Month
In honor of this month dedicated to discussing mental health, City of Dreams would like to acknowledge the grievances of a childhood in poverty.
A tainted history, racial isolation, and untreated violence–the status of the Bayview neighborhood should not be news to San Francisco locals. The reputation for gun violence and poverty dates back to Bayview’s inception. Forcibly pushed to the outskirts of the city, with seemingly only one way in or out, generations of families have remained within its walls. The neighborhood’s problems are nothing short of “scary,” as acknowledged by police and locals. In 2021, over half of the homicides in all of San Francisco happened in Bayview (1). Believed to be attributed to gang rivalries, many of its residents have observed a negligent police force responding. “Abandoned by the city,” (2) as some have expressed goes deeper than the absence of police but in almost all community initiatives that require city presence: housing, food accessibility, school retention rates, jobs, healthcare. “Something is not working and we got to figure out what it is,” said Malia Cohen, Bayview’s police commissioner.
Percentage of Residents who Feel Unsafe in their Neighborhood
Almost half of Bayview’s 35,000 residents lack formal education. Eighteen percent have less than a 9th grade education, and another 18% did not receive high school diplomas. Over the years, school admissions and retention has remained on the list of issues in need of attention, yet to formally receive it. All considered, joblessness has become commonplace within these households. The disparity between this neighborhood and its surrounding communities is manifest in the median household income–at $15,000 less than their peer communities. Residents are in a cycle off-pace with progress (3).
Damarianna at a park in San Francisco with our Program Manager, Kristine
Our concern, among many, stems from these factors conflicting with the mental health of the next generation. Socioeconomic status’ link to mental health bids the work and presence of mental health professionals, specifically Black professionals, at close proximity to the neighborhood. But this is not the case. Initiatives like ours have responded to this need and expanded the reach into educating and treating Black families, who are less likely to seek help. Those in poverty are 2 times less likely to speak up about their mental instability in comparison to Black communities who make double the income. To put to scale, in all of the US, 22.4% of Black people reported a serious mental health issue, yet 58% did not seek treatment (4). Past dehumanization of Black communities has transformed into institutionalized racism that undermines the mental stability of these children and their families. The oppression gate-keeps the self-assurance needed to seek treatment. Black communities are historically suppressed from access to healthcare, still yet to achieve access equivalent to everyone else.
According to the Niche Database on Bayview, 29% of residents do not trust the police, and another 43% believe that despite how visible the police present themselves, response times are too slow. (5) The children, who are influenced by a variety of facts, develop their own mistrust of authority and thus, this impedes on their readiness to seek help as well. Our concern is that poverty hits children the hardest. With a likelihood of carrying unhealthy eating and financial habits into adulthood, a cycle forms. Living with an extreme lack of resources has also been linked to a shorter life expectancy due to malnutrition and higher risk of disease. Education becomes controlled by accessibility levels. And unlawful survival tactics are learned at an early age (6). A succession of learned habits turns into detrimental patterns as they grow up.
The imprint of poverty on a child is no fault of their own, nor should the families be forgotten in the pursuit of mental health treatment. A prolonged apprehension to treatment due to poverty and stigma is what City of Dreams is looking to disrupt. We believe in these kids' right to thrive. Our Ground Zero and Ground Zero Girls initiatives were designed to remove the stigma of young adult conversations, and instead we offer our older youth the liberty to speak their mind and receive guidance from a life coach. Our after school and weekend programming is designed to alleviate the stress of life outside of our organization. Through an extension of childhood experiences, we hope to support the fragility of our kids’ mental state. We acknowledge the work to be done outside of youth-targeted on-site programs and we aim to materialize programs steered towards the families too. Open-invite events and volunteer opportunities are among some of the initiatives at work.
We acknowledge the violence, pain, and struggle of this community. We are also astonished by its resilience. The mental vulnerability of our youth is on our minds now more than ever.
To read more about the work we do, visit cityofdreams.org/programs
MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES FOR BLACK COMMUNITIES
Sernoffsky, Evan. “6 wounded as gun violence escalates in SF's Bayview.” KTVU, 15 February 2021, https://www.ktvu.com/news/6-wounded-as-gun-violence-escalates-in-sfs-bayview. Accessed 26 May 2022.
Molanphy, Tom. “'We feel abandoned': Bayview protest highlights ongoing toxic waste scandal - 48 hills.” 48 Hills, 14 February 2022, https://48hills.org/2022/02/we-feel-abandoned-bayview-protest-highlights-ongoing-toxic-waste-scandal/. Accessed 26 May 2022.
Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood Profile, https://sfmohcd.org/sites/default/files/FileCenter/Documents/911-BayviewHuntersPoint.pdf. Accessed 26 May 2022.
United States Census Bureau. (2019). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.pdf
“Bayview Crime Rates and Statistics.” Niche, https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/n/bayview-san-francisco-ca/crime-safety/. Accessed 26 May 2022.
“Black and African American Communities and Mental Health.” Mental Health America, https://www.mhanational.org/issues/black-and-african-american-communities-and-mental-health. Accessed 26 May 2022.