Health
Chicago Organizations Work to Address Suicide Rates Among Black Young People
By Marcela Cano, Luluya Tekle, Mira Trofymchuk, Lucy Yao
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among children and young adults in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies have previously shown suicide rates increasing faster among Black youth than any other racial groups in Chicago.
In an effort to combat these trends, two community-led organizations in Chicago — No Kids Die in the Chi and Soul Survivors of Chicago — are working to intervene early and provide young people with culturally grounded support.
At the House of Hope Foundation in Humboldt Park, 40 to 50 kids come through the doors each day. Children as young as 10 years old gather after school to eat, play video games and receive support from mentors. That support ranges from a curriculum on anti-trauma and anti-violence guidance to receiving household essentials and getting haircuts, all aimed at providing a safe haven amid community violence and poverty. The space is run by No Kids Die in the Chi, a youth-centered platform started by Shawn Childs.
Childs says his own experiences as a young man — repeated incarceration, struggles with drug use and sustaining multiple gunshot wounds — shapes the way he connects with youth today.
“When I was kid, I thought about suicide a lot,” Childs said. “I know what got me over it. So, that’s my role to kids, I know what helped me.”
On the city’s South Side, Rafiah Maxie-Cole, a licensed social worker, greets residents across different neighborhoods as she hands out gunlocks and mental health resources. She founded Soul Survivors of Chicago after her 19-year-old son, Jamal, died by suicide in 2020.
“It was the worst day of my life,” she said. “I wanted to take what everybody said, to get this pain, and turn it into something that’s productive, that’s about purpose, that’s about spreading a message; Because my son died and he didn’t have to die.”
Soul Survivors of Chicago is also known for one of its key initiatives, the “Walk in Purpose” project: a program that donates lightly used or new shoes from lost loved ones to those impacted by mental health, trauma or other loss.
“We have over 75 shoes that we’ve collected from persons who died by suicide or gun violence,” Maxie-Cole said. “They’ve been cleaned, they’ve been sanitized, and the only thing we ask for is to give it to someone who’s in crisis with understanding that, ‘Hey, this is a shoe of someone whose legacy was cut short. Therefore, when you put this shoe on, walk with purpose.’”
Suicide deaths in Chicago have noticeably risen since 2018, according to Jonathan Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago.
However, the main distinction he makes is that with Black youth, “the percentage who are attempting is much higher compared to other folks.” Black students who attempted reportedly showed a rate of 11.8% in 2020 according to the CDC.
Suicide though, is not as black-and-white as people think, Childs says. Suicide among youth is often misunderstood because to many, the only methods are singular, drastically violent moments. However, continuous self-harm backed by suicide ideation are still attempts.
“If a kid is 15 years old and he’s doing 6 or 7 Percocets a day, that’s like self-suicide” Childs said. “These kids are so depressed … He knows that he’s to the point where he might die.”
Another method Childs refers to is a “gang bang,” where those who choose to commit crimes, will then “shoot at the police, back and forth,” even though “in his mind, he knows there’s a 99% chance he’s going to die.”
As Childs puts it, what is going through these kids’ heads is “I’m about to go rob this store because I need some money to eat, because I’m starving … If I go to jail, it’s worth it because I got to do what I gotta do to survive, right?”
Childs says the environment many young people grow up in plays a major role in their mental health.
“They have nothing to look forward to,” he said.
For Maxie-Cole, offering suicide prevention resources and mental health education helps reshape the approach to trauma and suicide within Black and marginalized communities. However, in her view society must also address one of the most dangerous factors in youth suicide: access to firearms.
In Illinois, gun laws require purchasing permits and licenses for all gun owners. Additionally, handguns specifically require carrying permits, while semi-automatic firearms, suppressors, ghost guns, and other hardware are banned entirely, according to the Institute for Legislative Action.
Singer notes that while firearms make up only 6% of overall suicide attempts, they account for 55% of suicide deaths. Therefore, for Black youth that already have higher suicide attempts than other ethnic or racial groups, firearm access only increases the chance of mortality.
Both Maxie-Cole and Childs also note the convenience of guns in communities.
“In a poor community, it’s a proven fact that the average kid would touch a gun before a book,” Childs says. “They know where the neighborhood people is hiding guns in the community.”
Maxie-Cole, who regularly hands out gunlocks at her stand, often tells people to take multiple because for many, “it’s much faster to get a gun than it is to get a mental health appointment.”
Singer also points to a history of mistrust between Black communities and mental health institutions.
“Black youth, historically, for understandable reasons, do not trust the mental healthcare system, the historically white mental healthcare system,” he said.
However, this only means that it is more important than ever to meet the needs of the people where they are.
“Are we providing culturally relevant services where people are, and in a format that makes sense to them?” Singer asks.
For this reason, Maxie-Cole often sets up shop in neighborhood landmarks, such as Ike’s Liquor on 57th Street, which is across the street from a healing circle where community members gather to discuss their lives.
“To have a resource that is something that is dependable, accessible, something that’s known, something that is reachable, is everything,” she said. “Being in the community brings the message that you don’t have to travel far to get the support that you need.”
Additionally, she says being from the South Side herself and bringing up her own story has allowed her to connect with others more easily. In fact, she says every time she opens with her loss, the person on the receiving end mentions their own buried trauma as well.
At the House of Hope, Childs also leads Operation Clean Youth, an initiative where young people clean up nearby blocks. All the children wear bright, neon construction vests with a QR code printed on its sleeve, so that anyone passing by can scan and receive information about the program.
This has led to many of the neighbors also recognizing these kids outside of No Kids Die in the Chi, encouraging better community upkeep and support around them.
“A kid that sees a clean community makes a clean heart and clean soul and a positive mind,” Childs said.
The most important part of suicide prevention, Singer emphasizes, is “helping people build lives worth living, and communities that make sure they’re creating a world that kids want to live in.”
All three reiterate that the solution to this must come back to connecting with the youth.
From a parent perspective, Rafiah encourages families to keep conversations going, and to normalize conversations about tough times because odds are, “you, at one point in your time, in your life, you felt that kind of way.”
From a more clinical perspective, Singer aims to debunk the myth that asking somebody if they are having thoughts of suicide will put the idea into their head. Not only has research proven this untrue, but oftentimes asking the question first will provide an opportunity for others to open up.
From someone who works with children going through mental health struggles daily, Childs says just talking to them can change their lives.
“You can’t judge them. You can’t talk against them. You have to talk to them,” he said. “If you care for these kids, they can change. You can’t save them all, but if you care, you’re going to change somebody because it’s love, you know? It’s just love.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
