(The Center Square) – Chicago rap star Chance the Rapper is working to build a bridge in his hometown that assures those in need of mental health care have access to the kind of treatment they need.
Through his SocialWorks nonprofit, the 30-year-old Chicagoan recently marked Mental Health Awareness Month by sounding the alarm about the importance of organizations like his My State of Mind initiative.
Since its 2019 inception, the program has built a staple of nearly 3,000 different wellness programs, all of them designed to give residents the kind of help each community finds itself in need of.
The “No Problem” rapper insists he speaks from experience when stressing the need for more outlets like My State of Mind.
“I’ve dealt with depression, anxiety and lot of different things,” he recently told reporters. “What helps even though it’s not simplistic is being amongst other people and creating space for your peers to be around you and see you might need help. I feel like that’s been my thing the past few years. Building my community and collectives around common goals … and a lot of my goals do deal with equity or housing, education, civics – a lot of different things.”
In 2021, Chance recounted having to work through some of his own, personal struggles during a Facebook interview with actress Taraji P. Henson, where he opened up about battling through the "dark days" of his mental health struggles and how those moments inspired him to fight for better times for everyone in the community.
“I think Black men are naturally guarded," he added when directly quizzed on the subject of all the added pressures Black men face to simply ‘man up’ and not show their inner feelings. “Your weakness is preyed upon. So, I think it’s a defense mechanism.”
Later, he recalled seeing a friend killed as a teenager, adding "you become kind of like numb to it. But it stays with you. And you don’t realize until later [that] it could have lasting effects.”
Dedicated to sparking the kind of change in his hometown, the rap star pledged in 2019 to donate $1 million to local mental health services through SocialWorks.
He adds he is now hoping to see more lawmakers do their part in bringing about the level of change he feels is actually needed.
“We’re talented people, but we’re not the people that make the big decisions," he said of the growing number of celebrities now pushing mental health care. "We’re not the people that write the biggest checks. Those kind of things have to happen."