When Aaron Diaz, 16, looked around his Compton, California, neighborhood, he saw people struggling, with little access to mental health care. “Collective trauma is embedded within the community,” Diaz says.
That’s why he decided to spend his summer learning about careers in the mental health field. Diaz is part of the first crop of high school students in a new pilot program offered by the state of California in partnership with the Child Mind Institute. Called the Youth Mental Health Academy, it gives Los Angeles high schoolers from marginalized backgrounds a chance to explore careers in mental health.
Diaz hopes to join the mental health workforce one day so he can lift up the diverse voices and stories of his community, he says: “This program can give me the tools and resources necessary to highlight and create healing spaces.”
