We are excited to highlight UNO anthropology student and Hollygrove resident Ka’Sha Fenceroy, who has been selected to serve as an IWES Policy Advisory Fellow! Ka’Sha is joining our youth cohort for this new initiative, which will identify and assess existing policies in education, the juvenile legal system, and the social services sector that impact the mental health and well-being of Black youth. She has her sights set on service, inspired in part by the community leaders in her hometown of Oakland, and by the works of her favorite author, Zora Neale Hurston. Ka’Sha has previously been involved with youth leadership work as an IWES Youth Leadership Council member and participant in the Aspen Challenge. Currently, she is a member of TransQueerYouth NOLA and has been an important voice in the ongoing planning of drug education and prevention workshops for youth, which will be hosted in the future by IWES social workers. 

Our Policy Advisory Fellows will support all phases of planning, implementation, and evaluation of Multisystem Compassionate Caring and Healing for Black Youth (MCH-BY) projects and programming. Our goal for the Fellows, such as Ka’Sha, is that their contributions within the fellowship can be applied in further contexts to impact other local, state, and national policies and champion this systems-thinking, interdisciplinary approach to improve youth mental health. Join us in welcoming Ka’Sha and all of our Policy Advisory Fellows beginning their work in January!