Report
Youth Healing Chi: A Call To Action For Mental Health Liberation In Chicago Public Schools
Chicago youth have lived through months of a federal siege. They have seen their family members and community members attacked and kidnapped. They have come together in community to support each other, protect each other, and work for a better future—while finding healing wherever they can. We believe that our public schools, as a community institution and public good, are more than a place to receive instruction. We believe they must be sites of healing.
This report analyzes current CPS crisis response policies and lays out a youth-led roadmap for mental health liberation. Beyond investments in youth mental health support, the Youth Healing Chi campaign calls for reforming the crisis response protocol and ending all policing in mental health crisis response. It also calls for a larger cultural shift in how we approach mental health: not through the lens of risk and liability, but through the lens of healing and self-determination for youth and families. It includes a toolkit so that students can protect their rights while, together with educators and community partners, they fight for systemic change.
The Youth Healing Chi Campaign is a citywide campaign created by young people, for young people. We are demanding a world that chooses care over punishment and healing over harm. We have an opportunity to develop a new vision of care and wellness outside of these carceral approaches by listening to, affirming, and following the lead of our young people and communities. Together, we are building the future we deserve.
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) is the leading organization for the Youth Healing Chi campaign. BPNC is an intergenerational community-based organization dedicated to equity and racial justice. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for the working-class and immigrant populations of Chicago’s southwest side through grassroots organizing and providing free and accessible social services and quality programs for youth and adults. BPNC has helped lead fights to get police out of Chicago Public Schools, fights for increased and sustainable funding for public neighborhood schools, and has organized to reopen closed public mental health centers and establish a city-wide non-police crisis response.