Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Linda Hart, founder of the African American Health Coalition. The African American Health Coalition is a collective of healthcare and mental health advocates dedicated to serving the communities by providing accessible, high-quality, free, and low-cost resources. Thank you so much for being here.
Linda Hart
My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
Maya Gwynn
So, I wanted to start at the beginning. What inspired you to start the African American Health Coalition, and what personal experience shaped this mission?
Linda Hart
For me, it's generational. Mental illness runs in our family, so I lived it the majority of all of my life, watching relatives try to navigate a system that was very difficult at the time, and the stigma behind mental illness not really openly having the conversation on trying to get out, it was like hush hush, you know, it goes on in the house, stays in the house, so that was a barrier, but then when one of my cousins committed suicide, I felt that it was a need to no longer hold back and become more involved in what services were available, and actually during that time, that's when my son was diagnosed as having a mental illness, schizophrenia, bipolar, again, that really propelled me with the desire and the motivation to start the organization centered around caregivers, parents, individuals who were in the system, faith-based, and community members. It was important that that needed to happen.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely, thank you so much for sharing that. With everything happening socially and politically right now, how are you seeing mental health show up differently in the Black community?
Linda Hart
In many ways. One of the positive ways, people are starting to have the conversations now, centered around the fact that having a conversation is no longer a shame in the family, it's actually an opportunity to have the conversation, because it's not only affecting the loved ones, but the whole family dynamics. Many changes happen when an individual becomes diagnosed. We're talking about medication compliance, we're talking about siblings and loved ones. How do they react with a loved one who no longer display personalities that they're familiar with? And so these are important conversations to have, especially if you know or you don't know, which is important, and so our organization started working with focus groups to find out how we can better communicate in our community regarding mental illness to have that conversation, so we can reduce the stigma of mental illness in the community.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, I absolutely agree. I feel like more people are talking about therapy, and it's become more normalized, which is good. As an award-winning grassroots organization, what does community-centered care look like in practice for you?
Linda Hart
Wow, many perspectives from advocacy work, which we created legislation, which recognized the second week in February as African American Mental Health Awareness Week, signed by the governor in 2011, to advocacy and legislation educating the community and legislators on what needs to be in place for caregivers and parents with individuals with disabilities, to community education and workshops we host from Narcan training to youth mental health 101 to adult mental health from anxiety, bipolar in which we created curriculums to be able to do community workshops to educate the community, to referrals and developing a directory of African American providers, so individuals felt comfortable talking to someone that they felt that they can relate to.
Maya Gwynn
How does your organization build trust in communities where healthcare systems have historically caused harm or been inaccessible?
Linda Hart
Consistency. We provide our resources in the community, and it's not a one-time shot. They know that, okay, when we're in the community, they'll see us on one block, and then the next week they see us on another block, but we're consistent in our presence in the advocacy of the work that we do, centered around mental health for African Americans, not only in the community, but we're active with the commissioners, the board of supervisors, the county, local city officials, along with state legislators, as well. So we're known for advocating basically a lot. And we also train up to 40 community outreach workers in our community.
Maya Gwynn
That's incredible for people who may not have immediate access to therapy, but are struggling right now, what practices or tools would you recommend to support their mental health?
Linda Hart
I just did a wellness workshop centered around self care. Self care is important, so when we talk about self care, many individuals - you have iPhones now, so oftentimes you can go online and find self care videos, from breathing techniques to meditation techniques, whatever, when you feel comfortable in doing, but self care is the number one priority that you should take. Cause if you don't take care of yourself, then you can't take care of your family, and you can't take care of anyone else. So, self care is the number one priority moving forward that I believe individuals should focus on.
Maya Gwynn
That's a great answer. We're going to move to our rapid fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Linda Hart
People Make the World Go Round.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, I love that. If you had to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have, besides the work you already do for a living, what would it be?
Linda Hart
Farming.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, what do you like to plant?
Linda Hart
My mother, she's from Alabama, so she grew everything from cotton, corn, black eyed peas, so I was out there in the garden with her, planting all of that. And so it was like at the dinner table, oh, go out in the garden and get us some tomatoes or some onions. So I grew up with that, working in the ground, and not only that, working in the ground is good therapy for me too. So that for me is part of my therapy is eating by hands in the dirt, watching something grow. You know, even kids watching something grow. It's a good feeling.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely. And as someone who's lived in the IE for a long time, what's your favorite IE restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Linda Hart
Well, it was The Castaways, you know. I used to go up there and just sit and look over the city when the sun goes down. It was beautiful, and you see the lights. And then, as far as my barbecue was Bobby Ray's,
Maya Gwynn
Okay.
Linda Hart
Bobby Ray's Barbecue. As far as the scenic route, driving up to Big Bear.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, Big Bear's a good one. And how can people keep up with you and support the work you're doing?
Linda Hart
They can keep up with us on our Facebook called Seed for Change, and our Seed for Change is the community outreach where we provided resources, and we brought other service providers with us to go out in the community to help the community receive resources from GED, record expungement, food. So, they can reach us on Facebook on Seed for Change.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. This is a great conversation.
Linda Hart
Thank you for inviting me. Appreciate it.
Maya Gwynn
Of course. Linda Hart is the founder of the African American Health Coalition. Find this segment and others at KVCR news.org/bpie. Support for this segment comes from the Mecca IE Fund at the Inland Empire Community Foundation, advancing racial equity and supporting long-term investments and Black-led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
