How the Boys and Girls Clubs Help Detroit Kids Become ‘Mentally Fit’

In July 2022, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan (BGCSM) launched a new program in partnership with Wayne State University’s Department of Psychology called Mentally Fit. Embedded into BGCSM programming at all four locations, Mentally Fit provides real-time behavioral health support, social-emotional learning and personal development provided by a 13-person team from Wayne State that includes doctoral and social work students.

Mentally Fit also offers individual, group and family therapy, plus staff support and consultations and psychological testing. “The Flinn Foundation helped us launch our psychological testing programming and we are currently applying to become an autism specialty center so we can test for autism and do evaluations,” says BGCSM’s Executive Director of Behavioral Health Tiffany Abrego, Ph.D.

A multi-faceted approach

Mentally Fit is part of the broader BEST (behavioral health, edutainment, sports, talent and innovation) model, which focuses on providing a well-rounded experience for club members. The club implements this model across all its locations, ensuring that every child has daily access to social and emotional learning opportunities.

One innovative aspect of the program is its focus on addressing toxic sports culture. By incorporating affirmations, goal-setting and positive reinforcement with coaches, parents and children team members aim to promote sportsmanship and reduce the “win-at-all-costs” mentality often associated with youth sports, Abrego says.

Social justice and teen interns

BGCSM recently received a grant from the Boys and Girls Club of America to support teen internships who will help expand the program’s reach through group activities and by participating in social justice projects. “We don’t want to just be providing services here,” says Abrego. “We want to be able to make systemic changes in the city of Detroit. That is our big goal, to be embedded in every single thing we do, so that the terminology and mental health is an ongoing, open discussion.”

Abrego says she and her colleagues are seeing real change when kids — particularly boys — embrace mental health support and seek out therapists to talk with. The program also actively addresses cultural stigmas, particularly among Black and Hispanic/Latino boys, where expressing vulnerability is often viewed as a sign of weakness. BGCSM aims to create a safe space where boys can build relationships with trusted adults and engage in therapy without judgment.

At BGCSM, kids are also learning about social media. “We’re starting to engage the kids in education on things like critical algorithmic literacy and the ways that algorithms target kids so that certain ads show up so they’re getting certain messages from the media,” Abrego says. They’re also talking about social media aggression. “It’s becoming this place that can be very toxic, and we want to make sure that we’re addressing those issues.”

By being present and available to talk with kids about what they’re seeing online, the behavioral health team offers a safe, judgment-free space individually and in groups. “A lot of the kids are struggling with the same things so we just want to offer open communication,” she says, adding that this is a healthier alternative to internalizing messages as truth.

A fast-growing program

By the end of 2023, Mentally Fit had served 731 kids. In just the first two months of 2024, the program served 431 kids, showing exponential growth. By taking part in all of the programming kids can experience at BGCSM, the team reduces stigma and barriers to support and normalizes discussions around mental health issues.

“We’re able to really interact with the kids. We’re not just like this elite mental health team off to the side that comes in and saves the day. We’re staff. We go to programming. We serve food. We are there when there are accidents, for Band-Aids. We’re there in the day-to-day,” Abrego says.

Because they’re working alongside other staff at BGCSM, there’s organizational benefit because the Mentally Fit team models mental health support and provides self-care help when any staff member just needs a break — especially in the dedicated on-site rooms that anyone in the organization can access as a safe space.

“We’re able to help with behavior management and model that for the staff so they do learn positive reinforcement and we definitely have seen a change,” Abrego says. “And the staff, too, appreciate us coming through when we do conflict resolution with the staff and in front of the staff. We’re also working on training some of the staff members to be behavioral health advocates so that they can help run our programming as well, even if the behavioral health team isn’t there.”

A further program in partnership with a trauma team from St. John’s University allows the Wayne State behavioral health team to learn coping skill techniques — which they, in turn, can teach other staff throughout the organization.

Building lifelong mental health skills

For such a young program that is expanding quickly, Abrego says the key to success is how the behavioral health team is embedded — and how it works to build lifelong skills for strong mental health through adulthood.

“We’re not just looking at an afterschool program where we help with homework and play. This is a building of character. It’s a building of how to function and become an adult. We’re giving skills that will translate through adulthood. We’re addressing emotional competence,” she says.

Preliminary findings show improvements among the kids in conflict resolution, expressing emotions, managing emotions and using coping skills. And, Abrego says, the team is working to support families and further break down stigma.

“One area we really want to expand on is working with parents. I think we have so much generational trauma that has occurred through families and our parents are stressed to the max,” she says. “A lot of them work multiple jobs, have community violence, domestic violence, a lot of stressors.” While parents may still worry about what they share with Abrego’s team, there is confidentiality in place and never judgment on parenting or cultural practices.

“Each family has their own special ways of interacting, and that is totally fine with us. We are not here to tell you how to parent. We are here to help you in whatever ways you find useful. And we really want to do that,” she says. “We just want to help.”

Learn more about Mentally Fit at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan. Visit bgcsm.org.