City Councilor Nichole Rogers wants to change the narrative about her sprawling, culturally diverse district. Rogers made history when she was elected as the first African American woman to sit at the Albuquerque City Council table. She represents District 6 which takes in Nob Hill, the International District and Mesa del Sol.
City Desk ABQ met up with Rogers when she visited the New Mexico Academy for the Media Arts, a state authorized public charter school in the heart of her district, earlier this week. The school is at Central and Washington and offers secondary students a comprehensive, rigorous, project based, cross-curricular education centered in the media arts.
Rogers is an outspoken advocate for increasing mental health services. She says she wants to help clear barriers keeping people from getting help with mental health issues. Rogers sat down with student filmmakers to talk about youth and mental health for a documentary class project.
They asked her what she thought could be done to address the adolescent mental health crisis.
“I’m so glad you asked that question. Mental health is something that’s very important to me and for myself, for my children and for our neighborhoods and I think we don’t think about mental health enough, especially for youth,” Rogers responded. “I think one of the things I would love to do is mental health first aid. It’s the same as CPR but for your mental health. There’s a teen curriculum for that. There’s an adult curriculum for that, and basically we can get other teens trained in mental health first aid. What that means is that you will be able to see the warning signs and someone’s in trauma, even though they don’t tell you. You can learn about body language signs. There’s a lot of different things you can clue into. It also helps you to have those conversations with each other in an appropriate way. And the most important thing is it teaches you how to help others seek out help and to actually put the power in your hands to help each other.”
Editors note: Carolyn Carlson is on the board of New Mexico Academy for the Media Arts
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