Brother, We Got You: A collective impact approach to addressing Black college men's mental health

Abstract

Higher education administrators, faculty, and staff across diverse institutional contexts grapple with college students' persisting and increasing mental health concerns. Further, recent research has discussed mental health challenges Black collegians encounter, exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Mental health issues among Black college students vary based on several factors (e.g., institutional type, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality). Research has demonstrated the various mental health trepidations Black men navigate at institutional campuses. Informed by a collective impact framework, we explored how higher education institutional stakeholders can collaboratively labor to drive solutions for promoting Black college men's mental health and well‐being. This article begins by broadly reviewing the literature on Black men's mental health in and outside collegiate settings. Next, we discussed the collective impact framework and how it can aid in expanding and advancing transformative mental health programs and services for Black college men. This article concluded with implications for future practices and programmatic considerations within collegiate environments.