As executive director of Shine Initiative, Charisse Murphy eyes mental health needs for youths

With a history of working with youths, Charisse Murphy sees the challenges facing young people making their way through a complicated world, and that includes mental health.

One way to approach it: enlist other young people as mental health ambassadors, to understand signs of a person in need, and make their communities more informed overall. Murphy serves as executive director of Shine Initiative, which provides trainings and other resources for schools, adults and young people, and to bridge gaps, including those of language, culture or religion.

Celebrating its 20th year, the organization is planning a gala celebration and fundraiser, set for June 20 at Mechanics Hall. Events also include an annual Youth Mindmatters Summit; this year's event took place March 13 at the DCU Center.

Murphy talked about the challenges facing mental health, especially for teens, concerns about the uncertainty of federal funding for health and education, and why she remains optimistic about the continuing conversation about wellness of mind and body.

Please tell me more about the Shine Initiative and its goals.

We are celebrating our 20th anniversary. This does come at a nice time to spread the word about that. We were founded 20 years go by the local Fidelity Bank. We were founded by the CEO, Ed Manzi ... he has a connection to mental health personally, but he also saw a bigger need in the community. They took board members from the bank, and bank staff ... initially, we were given grants for health needs in the school ... we then trained some (school) staff. It has molded into what we do now.

In the present day, we are in about 60 different schools, in and around Central Massachusetts, and provide mental health education. We are educators, not clinicians. I was a clinician in a former life, but not here.

Our pillars: mental health literacy, when to seek help, suicide awareness. We highlight facts about suicide, how to start the conversation; self care and wellness. Those are our three pillars.

Our focus is adolescents, so we do mental wellness in high school. We come in and out. We never leave the school. We engage with the school the entire school year.

How does the Shine program work?

So, I give this spiel quite often. We go into school during school hours, and do presentation, and then we ask the school: "Hey, we encourage you to support these clubs and teams." There are groups of students who meet. They can meet whenever they want to. It can be before, during and after school.

They can bring the info back to their communities. They have speakers come in. What it is not is a therapy group for kids. It's for kids to say, "Hey, think we should do this." At the Stacy Middle School (in Milford,) the students put hearts on kids' lockers, with prizes. It was every single kid in the entire middle school, stickers that said, "You are enough," "I see you." The kids did all of that.

It's like the kids are mental health citizens, in what they see and what they say.

Mental health ambassadors, really. The CDC report said 50% of students report that they receive support from their peers, because they do talk to each other, which is great.

How did you get involved, and what role do you have now?

So, I was on the board of Shine, mid-pandemic. Fred Kaelin was the head of the board. Shine was in this limbo, because all the work was done in the schools. The board decided they needed to hire a fundraising development person. I have a history in fundraising and development for nonprofits, and Fred asked me to come on board. Fred left the on board, building the grant department, seeking out gifts from donors, etc. Fred Kaelin left the board, and asked me to assume the role as executive director.

Can you tell me how you got interested in the mental health field?

So, I studied psychology and criminal justice. That was my undergrad from the University of New Haven. I also had that pull with working with young people. Mentorship was important to me. Mental health was important to me.

My first job was working in a residential facility. I say everyone who wants to work with youth should start with that. It is an eye-opener about what youth have to go through. I've run the gamut, bring a direct care residential worker. I was able to see young people when they got out of a residential home transition to a foster home, and getting adopted. I followed all the way through the world of youth work.

I started my work Massachusetts at YOU Inc., and was the Director of Youth Services worker for many years, with you committed because of some criminal charge. It's funny, because my husband is in a completely different field, sales. He said, "You know what? You can do sales." I need to be with people. I love making a difference, and it feels good.

Although your role now is more about education than mental health services, are there particular concerns that you see?

The two worlds intersect. We don't do our work without highlighting the need and importance of including therapists and psychiatrists in our area. We educate the community on how it is to have the conversation. Shine has evolved over the years, but that really is at the core. We believe everyone can talk about mental health.

We do know that the data shows there are marginalized communities — the LGBTQ+ community, the Black community. LGBTQ+ youths experience a great deal of harassment that is dangerous (to their mental health.) For Black students, the suicide rate has been on the rise for Black students. Racism and discrimination can really impact one's mental health. When we look at everything as a whole, we see great, positive lights at the end of the tunnel — 81% of kids report having at least one adult in their life they can trust. That is huge.

The kids are talking, and as much as social media is a concern, what it does provide is a space where the young community can talk. What we are trying to do is bring both worlds together.

We do support groups for parents and educators. We try to make there the adults in their lives are speaking the same language, that they know what things mean.

So, it's educating the kids and the adults so they can talk together.

Exactly. What we also try to do at Shine is talking in plain language. I've been guilty of this, too. Early in my career in human services, to talk in plain language, like acronyms, breaking it down on the level that hopefully can be understood by most.  

We run into this especially Worcester public schools, in Leominster, and Fitchburg. We have a really diverse group of students that don't always speak the same language. We were presenting, and we could hear whispers of kids talking in the back. What we realized is that they were translating for other students.

What we are doing in the plan right now is printing and laminating signs, so the students can follow along.

I had someone come out and say, "Can we do this in Spanish?" Parents don't always have the language to really have that conversation. We have some educators who have volunteered to look at our presentations. We want to make sure it is translated correctly. We have them in Spanish and Portuguese.

Are there cultural differences to navigate also, such as attitudes toward mental health?

What we try to do also is make sure our presentations speak to inclusivity and equality as much as possible. We understand that if we go into a classroom of 30 kids, they are not all the same. They don't all come from the same language, cultural or spiritual backgrounds. What we do is that kids said, "Hey, listen, I see one of the activities can be journaling, but in my house, we pray. Can that be a positive way to cope?" And we say, "Of course it is." Some kids say, "I don't pray. I play football, and that is my self care."

A kid might say, "In my house, mental health has been this really big boogey man, a scary thing to talk about. How can we talk about that in my family?" Or, "In my religious faith, we don't talk about it."

We give hotlines. The Massachusetts behavioral health lines can translate to over 200 languages in real time. You don't need to be in crisis to call.

What are some things you want to accomplish in the future?

I think the reason why people are drawn to the work we do is because we are so approachable, I think when we go someplace, coffee shop, mailman or woman, the guy who is fixing my car, might say, "This just happened to me." I was getting my tires done, and they said, "Oh, what do you do for work?" I told him, and he started pouring out. He said, "I grew up this way. I'm so glad it's changing."

If I had a magic wand, we wouldn't only be serving this community. So, that would be one thing for me, that Shine would be statewide, and this conversation about reducing the stigma of mental health for all cultures and faiths — that would be a nice magic wand for me.

I see it on the internet, on ads and campaigns, with celebrities, making it normal. I think we are down the right path, to be honest. We can talk about mental health, and it can sound doomy-gloomy, but I see great happenings, just around the conversation about mental health.

With cuts at the federal level to different services, including health services and the Department of Education, do you have concerns on what the future looks like from here?

It's a call to action. We rely heavily on our individual donors. In the last two years, city, state and federal grants allowing us to work within the public schools. What the future looks like there? I can err on the side of positivity and optimism for sure. This same concern is in conversations that I have been having with other executives in the nonprofit space ... we would love to see an increase in our federal support and our state support. That is an uncertain time for us, so really, relying heavily on individual donors and businesses who see our organization as a necessity in the community.