Aakoma Project Inc

Empowering people with accessible tools for ongoing mental health management including engaging 13 youth from three countries to join team aakoma (our youth leadership and advisory board) receiving training, leadership and engagement opportunities who also stood tall and initiated mental health conversations with family and friends. Notably 100% of our aakoma project free therapy network providers are people of color and/or people with expertise in providing culturally responsive care. Aakoma has coordinated hundreds of hours of free mental healthcare (via our national provider network referral service) to youth and young adults of color ages 12-30 reaching people of color in almost half 50 states and u.s. Territories. Our work also reaches individuals on a personal level via our activities like teaching virtual mindfulness meditation for young people of color, connecting students with mentors from our network, and providing leadership opportunities, internships, and jobs.

Changing systems to promote youth wellbeing and provide better care: aakoma leads in the production of rigorous, culturally-relevant science at the intersection of traditional clinical research and community engaged research. We work to ensure that researchers, research institutions, and associations recognize and prioritize data and studies that focus on the needs of the widest range of youth and young adults possible.

Youth of color are in critical need of improved mental health; however, research about youth of color is mainly absent. In 2024, the aakoma project initiated 2 major reports on youth of color mental health; a research study on overall mental health and implementation of a youth led program begun in 2023 that continued into 2024 and focused on a youth led mental health campaign