On January 2019, The Mental Health Collective of Indigenous People and People of Color (MHC of IPOC) was formed at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. This collective strives to bring together indigenous people and people of color together because as they describe it, “…where frequently our communities have been pitted against one-another we know we are stronger when in solidarity.” Specifically, the MHC of IPOC formed due to community desire to create a healing space for the surrounding communities and their community members.
The purpose of the MHC of IPOC is to create a space to talk about mental health and wellbeing in these two communities. In addition, the collective is open to students (both undergrad and graduate) and staff who identify as an indigenous person or a person of color.
To learn more about where and when they hold their meetings, go here to find out! Additionally, you can find out about other similar mental health organizations and resources available at the U of M campus listed on their page as well.
Personally, I think this initiative is wonderful because as a person of color, I feel that my community (as a Hmong American) doesn’t talk enough about mental health. It’s almost regarded as a taboo topic because people either don’t talk about it or they avoid it. Some reasons for why people don’t talk about mental health include:
- They don’t want to appear weak
- They don’t want to admit they need help
- They don’t know about mental health due to a lack of education in mental health
- They don’t have the resource to combat mental health because they don’t know where to access these resources
It’s great that my campus is creating resources that bring awareness to issues affecting minority groups such as this! Do you have a similar resource on your campus? Comment down below!