Study shows any contact with police may be detrimental to health, well-being of Black youth: \u2018I feel like there\u2019s always going to be fear because that\u2019s how we still live\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe asked me where I was going, to empty my pockets \u2026,\u201d Watts said. \u201cI remember the fear. I didn\u2019t want to make any wrong moves.\u201d<\/p>\n Watts shared the story while he was a senior at Mather High School in West Ridge. At the time, he was mourning the deaths of his younger brother, Derrion Umba Ortiz, and his friend, Caleb Reed. Their deaths changed him, mentally, he said. At the time, he said he had two options<\/a>: Stay in the grieving stage or use his voice to make changes.<\/p>\n He chose the latter and stepped through Communities United\u2019s (CU) doors \u2014 Chicago\u2019s survivor-led, grassroots, intergenerational, racial justice organization where youth talk about their experiences. Watts became a youth leader advocating for change in his neighborhood and others, a change that included his school council voting in favor of removing police officers who work as school resource officers. Following Watts\u2019 interaction with police, he felt uncomfortable seeing them in school settings, as their presence made him feel he was always doing something wrong. In his CU role, he made it a point to reassure other youth who had similar encounters with police, telling them: \u201cYou\u2019re not in the wrong. Don\u2019t feel like you are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what needs to happen with Black youth. We need reassurance that we\u2019re not doing anything wrong,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n Communities United youth will share their opinions and thoughts on mental health at a summit at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 16, at the El Centro Library and Learning Center at Northeastern Illinois University. The youth-led event will bring together community organizations, hospital leaders, policymakers and funders to begin designing a citywide mental health plan for young adults.<\/p>\n This month, Watts graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor\u2019s degree in social welfare. While there, he leaned into leadership roles that centered the Black community, including taking lessons he learned from Communities United on narrative change, advocacy and agency on campus. Now, he has a master\u2019s degree\u00a0in mind, anticipating sitting at tables where policy conversations happen, using his experience growing up in low-income environments to assist\u00a0resource-poor communities<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI want to be in those conversations where we\u2019re talking about what community needs what,\u201d Watts said. \u201cI want to get back inside these communities, be a representative and be that person that can help uplift them.\u201d<\/p>\n The mindset is shared by other Communities United youth leaders, such as Arianna Brandt, a senior at Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in Austin. She said CU helped her redirect her shyness to finding her voice. CU taught her how to speak up for herself, her friends and her future \u2014 one that includes attending Chicago State University and becoming an entrepreneur. Brandt remembers CU youth stepping up to share their feelings about the snap curfew<\/a> with elected officials and attending city council meetings where the issue was on the agenda.<\/p>\n At the summit, leaders like Brandt will meet with organizations such as the Kedzie Center to develop a five-year mental health plan.<\/p>\n \u201cYouth are coming together to change the narrative, because people view us as troublemakers \u2026 but we\u2019re not bad kids,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cIf youth don\u2019t step up and have a conversation around this, then adults are going to put something in place that doesn\u2019t take our views into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n Roughly one-third of young adults in the U.S. have negative views of their mental health, according to a 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center<\/a>. Among youth, more than 5.3 million, or 20.3% of adolescents 12 to 17 years old, had a current, diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition in 2023, including anxiety, depression or behavior\/conduct problems. Anxiety was the most common condition at 16.1%, followed by depression at 8.4% and behavior\/conduct problems at 6.3%, according to a national survey of children\u2019s health data.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere are disparities in mental health care, and it\u2019s on us to be thinking about how we can better serve communities in need,\u201d Dr. Andrea Spencer, vice chair for research in the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital of Chicago, said.<\/p>\n For more than a decade, Communities United has worked with Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital of Chicago in a number of efforts, including ending the zero-tolerance expulsion policy in Illinois public schools, expanding public health approaches such as restorative justice and engaging youth as advisory members to guide substance-use prevention.<\/p>\n The duo\u2019s current endeavor is\u00a0a \u201cHealing Through Justice\u201d<\/a> framework that psychiatrists and institutions can use to promote mental health and wellness across communities. The model fosters new partnerships with adults and institutional leaders who support youth-driven leadership and solutions to address community needs.<\/p>\n It garnered the attention of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation\u2019s Racial Equity 2030 Challenge<\/a>, a global competition to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities. In 2022, CU and Lurie Children\u2019s were awarded $10M<\/a> by the Kellogg Foundation to scale the framework and, in the process, heal youth and their communities.<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ctc-l-mental-health-summit12_45d0bf.jpg\")
At Communities United, Muna Abdullahi makes a sign on May 12, 2026, to be used at an upcoming mental health summit for young people. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ctc-l-mental-health-summit08_854d6a.jpg\")
At Bikes N’ Roses, a program at Communities United, Hailey Jurado works on her lowrider bicycle on May 12, 2026. The bike will be displayed at an upcoming mental health summit for young people. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n