The Mental Wealth Alliance (MWA) represents the vision of multi-media mogul and radio hall of famer Charlamagne Tha God, who has made a commitment to deliver transformative mental health services to the Black community.
“The need is great,” said Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, a psychologist and MWA’s chief mental wellness officer. “There are so many issues around systemic racism, social and racial injustice, incarceration, community violence, and day-to-day struggles that are unique to the Black community.”
Charlamagne wants to provide more than 10,000 hours of free mental health care to Black people in need, Breland-Noble said. “Charlemagne wants other people to have the same benefit from therapy that he experienced when he sought care many years ago.”
In his book “Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me,” Charlemagne wrote about how therapy helped him deal with anxieties such as fear of failure and fear of being a bad husband and bad father.
“We have so many Black men who don’t know what to do with their anger,” Breland-Noble said. “And underneath that anger is a lot of pain, trauma and sadness.”
MWA, a Giving Back Fund client, is grounded in three pillars of impact: train, teach and treat. The pillars are operationalized through:
* Scholarships and research training to help diversify the racial makeup of the mental health workforce (train).
* Resources to eradicate the stigma of mental illness in Black communities (teach).
* Grants to culturally competent providers for therapy and collateral services (treat).
MWA’s outreach efforts include the Mental Wealth Expo held annually in New York City. The free event aims to raise awareness and educate people about mental health.
“Each year it has grown,” Breland-Noble said. “The first year we had about 1,200 participants. Last year we had about 2,500 people. This year we’re anticipating 3,000 to 3,500 people participating.”
At the 2022 Expo, the mother of a troubled teenage son thanked presenters Shaka Senghor and Wallo for inviting the boy to the stage and hugging him. “Everyone in the place pretty much burst into tears, because it was so powerful to watch them embrace that young man and give him hope,” Breland-Noble said.
An MWA social media report, covering the period between March 23 to August 23, 2023, revealed these impressive statistics:
- Estimated audience reach increased to more than 226 million;
- The number of male followers increased;
- Twitter impressions were up 60 percent from the last report;
- +365% follower account reach increase from June to July
- +377% non-follower account reach increase from June to July
MWA was founded in 2021 with The Giving Back Fund as its fiscal sponsor.
“The Giving Back Fund receives donations on behalf of the Mental Wealth Alliance and they manage the funds,” Breland-Noble said. “Two colleagues from The Giving Back Fund help me with day-to-day operations. They do boots-on-the ground work.”
Breland-Noble said The Giving Back Fund helps her connect and collaborate with potential funders, “including high net worth individuals and funding entities. They help me vet entities and help me plan strategies on how to approach funders.”
In addition, The Giving Back Fund provides back-end logistical work, such as helping to plan and execute the Mental Wealth Expo. “I don’t have the bandwidth to negotiate with the talent, to take care of their travel, to ensure that they show up,” Breland-Noble said. “The Giving Back Fund takes care of that.”
The Giving Back Fund (GBF) is a national nonprofit organization with global reach that facilitates philanthropic giving by providing consulting, management, and administrative services under a governance structure, similar to a community foundation. With more than 500 years of combined world-class expertise, the GBF team of philanthropy professionals has helped its clients create more than 900 individual foundations and fiscally sponsored projects across the globe. GBF clients include athletes, entertainers, business entrepreneurs, corporations, and others — all with a common goal to make this a better world.
For more information, please see givingback.org
