A Reimagining of California’s Commitment to the Emotional Well-Being of Its Children

Over the past few years, California’s leadership has responded boldly to the well-documented youth mental health crisis – one that was happening even before COVID. California Children’s Trust (CCT) has played a catalytic role in unifying and mobilizing the state’s historic reform efforts. 

In 2018, with initial funding from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, an amazing group of advisors and allies came together to form CCT. This group included Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and advocate who has focused her career on understanding and addressing the impact of violence and racism on the health and welfare of children and communities; Jevon Wilkes, who draws on his lived experiences with foster care, behavioral health, juvenile justice, and homelessness in California, to passionately and compassionately advocate for the needs of young people and families so they can heal and thrive; and Alex Briscoe, Principal of CCT, who has led a $700 million county health department, spearheaded high-level philanthropic initiatives, and is now leading a movement to reimagine Medi-Cal as a tool for equity and social justice for California’s children and youth.

CCT aims to simplify California’s complex approach to children’s behavioral and mental health development by focusing on three core strategies: maximize funding, expand access and participation, and increase system accountability. Success would be to reform the maze of government agencies and programs purporting to promote the mental health of young people – and to do so through the lens of equity and justice. 

The result of these efforts? A shift in how California supports the mental and behavioral health of children and youth.

At the end of 2021, with CCT’s advocacy leadership, the state provided $4.4 billion to launch the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI). As a result, youth will have increased access to mental health support when they need it, in places that feel safe and familiar, and with people who have similar life experiences. The new programs will push the health and school systems toward prevention to help address the social and economic issues driving the crisis.

The data is staggering. Youth self-harm in California increased 50 percent between 2009 and 2018. COVID made it worse. The impact of the crisis is disproportionate as data show Black children have the highest rates of severe emotional disturbance. To add insult to injury, California ranks 48th in the country in terms of youth access to mental health care.

Jevon Wilkes, Director of Youth Engagement with the California Children’s Trust and Executive Director of the California Coalition for Youth (CCY), has helped California’s movement to center schools in reimagining youth mental health care, making it possible for teens to be part of what he calls the “protective team factor” that supports other youth who are peers. 

Young people working with the CCT/CCY Youth Advisory Board (YAB) successfully lobbied the California legislature to spark interest in peer-led programs, which led to a $10 million investment to explore the expansion of peer-to-peer programs across the state.