RESILIENCE, WELL-BEING & MENTAL HEALTH
Through our Resilience, Wellbeing & Mental Health division, we promote mental and emotional wellness. In all of our work, we use a socio-ecological framework that focuses on what is needed at the individual, community, and societal levels to address the mental and emotional health needs of communities who have historically endured oppression, bias, and disenfranchisement. In direct response to these injustices, IWES works closely with communities to provide spaces for healing while also providing people with the resources to define and uniquely envision what healing looks like for them.
From Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Melissa, we at the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES) understand all too well what it takes — mentally, physically, and emotionally — to recover from disasters. One of the crucial lessons we learned is that it’s vital that we prioritize a human recovery that centers the mental health needs of youth and families. For that reason, we have created RISE UP, JAMAICA, a fund to support programming, training, and direct resources to address the mental health recovery of Jamaicans impacted by Melissa, both youth and adults alike. As an organization headquartered in New Orleans and co-founded by a Jamaican psychiatrist and public health practitioner, we recognize that now more than ever, it’s time for the diaspora and beyond to RISE UP for Jamaica!