RE-Center partnered with the Black and Brown Student Union (BBSU) to host the Quaranteens Youth Conversation Series.

The Quaranteens Youth Interview Series focused on collecting youth stories and experiences during the global pandemic and uprisings. Students were interviewed to develop a series of short clips recording their histories and experiences among the vast uncertainty. Youth were asked to reflect on the following;

  • What is your new reality right now and how are you facing it?
  • What’s been most challenging for you and how do you think these challenges should be addressed?
  • How do you think the world will change after COVID-19 and what is your vision for the future?
  • What’s one way that young people are impacted that no one’s talking about?
  • What does this pandemic reveal about race, class, health, and justice?

Stay tuned, a short video will be released soon, that will live in the Hartford Public Library archives.

The Quaranteens: Decolonizing Wellness Conversation Series focused on facilitated conversations with CT youth around navigating wellness during the pandemic. RE-Center and the BBSU hosted a two-part webinar series to connect young people with adults practicing crisis care techniques in a candid conversation about equity, self-care, and the systems that are failing Black and POC communities. Grounding mental health in its pre-colonial history and rooted in ancestral wellness and self-care practices. Program Director of Youth Development, Sarana Beik, partnered with Ahmad Abojaradeh from Life in my Days, RE-Center staff/facilitators Chris Richardson, SabriAnan Micha, Cristher Estrada – Perez, along with support from Tamara Morris from (Encore Program at UConn) to facilitate the conversation.

Young people had the opportunity to share their wellness practices and experiences and engage in dialogue about music, media, sobriety, mental health, and transformative self-care & tools. A direct result of the program is the creation of a sharable mental/ emotional/ physical wellbeing toolkit focused on youth of color with emergency resources in Hartford, New Haven, New London, Waterbury, and Bridgeport. A wellness kit by young people for young people.

Session 1: Wellness & Mental Health.

  • Decolonized Wellness for POC – Ahmad from Life in my Days
  • Wellness practices are grounded in our cultural practices & tradition
  • We have lived through pandemics before
  • Stress’s effect on the brain

Session 2: Self-Care Practices

  • What does self-care look like for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)?
  • Tarot as a reflective tool
  • Meditation Practice
  • We invented Mutual Aid