The Substance Abuse Program for African-Canadian and Caribbean Youth (SAPACCY): An Innovative Program Serving the Mental Health Needs of African, Caribbean, and Black Youth

Black youth experience disproportionately poor health outcomes throughout Ontario's healthcare system, including the mental health and addictions system. The Substance Abuse Program for African Canadian and Caribbean Youth (SAPACCY) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) seeks to address this disparity by providing clinical services to youth who identify as Black and/or as having African and/or Caribbean heritage, and their families, who are struggling with problematic substance use and/or mental health concerns. The clinical team works from an Afrocentric, culturally responsive lens to promote recovery and support Black youth in working through their mental health and addiction concerns. The program offers mental health and addictions counselling and psychotherapy, psychiatric consultation, psychoeducation, resource navigation, advocacy, and case management services to assist youth and their families/caregivers in reducing harm, moving toward recovery, and making healthy choices for themselves and their family. This paper will discuss SAPACCY’s approach to helping clients build resilience and resistance to anti-Black racism.

What Does it Mean to Be White in America: My Multi-Metamorphoses

Gil Fagiani is a storyteller by nature and by craft, both of which he employs in his essay My Muli-Metamorphoses, a version of which originally appeared in the anthology What Does it Mean to Be White in America (Two Leaf Press). Fagiani traces the dramatic arc of his transformation from a clueless White suburban middle class boy from Connecticut to a left-wing urban revolutionary who co-founded White Lightning, a Bronx-based organization that sought to radicalize white, working-class people. By working side by side with minority ethnic groups as an aide at the Bronx Psychiatric Center; a first marriage to a woman of color; and as the Director of a substance abuse program, Fagiani paves a path that binds his ethnicity with his progressive politics. As a writer, much influenced by Puerto Rican and Black writers, his work reflects the thorny racial separateness that makes trust and understanding distant goals.