- Just ahead on "American Black Journal," a nonprofit that provides services to the homeless is celebrating 10 years of helping families become self-sufficient.

Plus it's Suicide Prevention Month.

We'll talk about eliminating the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Also coming up, we'll share stories from our Destination Detroit series.

Stay right there.

"American Black Journal" starts right now.

- [Narrator] Across our MASCO family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

MASCO, a Michigan company since 1929.

- [Announcer] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm Stephen Henderson.

10 years ago, COTS Detroit launched an initiative called Passport to Self-Sufficiency.

The framework helps at-risk Detroit families build pathways to long-term success.

In celebration of the milestone anniversary, the nonprofit has released a publication.

It's titled "COTS is Care."

The book documents the history, partnerships, and family stories that have emerged over the past decade.

Joining me now is COTS Detroit CEO, Cheryl Johnson, along with one of the Passport to Self-Sufficiency participants, Shoushanna Simpson.

Welcome both of you.

- Thank you.

- To "American Black Journal.

- Thank you for having me.

- Cheryl, I'm gonna start with you.

This was a really ambitious idea when you launched this 10 years ago.

I think you came on this show.

- Yeah, right.

- Tell us about that decade that's happened and what you've learned.

- Yeah, so it literally came out of a moment where I was asked to go on a sabbatical and away, began to kind of reminisce over the time that I had spent at COTS, our successes and the areas that we just wanted to say, "No, we don't need to do that anymore."

- [Stephen] This isn't working, yeah.

- Right, so one of the things that really kept coming up for me were the number of stories from some of our families who were present there, who would say something like, "I remember being here when I was five years old."

Now keep in mind they're now the adult parent, and that didn't sit well with me.

Like we had done very well in getting people housed, but breaking the cycle of what we call generational poverty was at play.

And so I think one of the most courageous things was to call it what it was.

Let's talk about poverty and not about homelessness.

And the Passport came out of that.

- Yeah, so talk a little about how that works, right?

I mean, as you point out, COTS has spent forever, in my memory at least, you know, helping people find shelter, right, someplace to stay.

That's a really very different task from moving people to the place where they don't need help getting shelter.

So how does that work for you?

- So the Passport literally is a theory of change.

It is really addressing five particular areas in a person's life, beginning with family stability, education, employment, your overall health and wellbeing, and then what we call economic mobility, financial literacy.

And we realize that if a person is lacking or has some diminished capacity in any of those areas, and I don't care who you are, that means everything else in your life is at risk.

And so to move this and address the issue of generational poverty, we've gotta look at it in terms of generation, how we actually cross generations.

And it takes time to do that.

And so the first thing that we addressed was we will no longer, and it was a decision to serve single people but families so that we could like measure this over time and across generations.

- [Stephen] Wow.

- And so the coaching is really at the middle of it.

It is about meeting our families where they are.

And we don't talk about anything else but these five particular areas and helping them to address whatever the goals are that they choose and then helping them to meet that.

And so it is a long-term engagement even after they leave any of our housing, which could be the emergency shelter or our supportive housing programs.

- Yeah, so Shoushanna, talk about your journey through this program.

- Well, I actually was in a bad situation, and I lived with no amenities, so that is still considered being homeless.

But once I was connected with a coach, she pushed me forward.

She gave me the confidence to just push forward in life with me and my children.

Once I got in a housing situation, she was like my personal cheerleader.

She pushed hope into me that was tooken out.

Like I just felt hopeless in this house where I had to make sure my children had, you know, something to eat, somewhere to wash, things that I couldn't just wake up and do.

She definitely gave me that confidence as well as everyone else in this facility, and that was very rare for me.

I couldn't help.

- So the situation that you were in, tell our viewers a little more about that and how you found yourself there.

- I owned a home, and one day I came home, and my furnace and hot water tank was gone.

- [Stephen] Stolen.

- It was stolen, and I couldn't, I had to pay the taxes.

I had to, you know, pay other things, but those two things were gone, and that's just like what a house is, that's the heart of your house.

I had nowhere else to go, so I had to live there.

Me and my children had to live there.

- [Stephen] No heat.

- Yeah.

- [Stephen] No hot water.

- Yep.

The electricity was still on, so I had to work with that.

I had to buy the water and things like that.

So that take the bulk of my money, but I just wanted my kids to be somewhere safe, and that's what I had purchased, this home, so I had to be there.

- And now what's different?

Talk about what is specifically different for you?

- Everything.

(Stephan laughing) I can't imagine.

When I was just in that home, I was feeling just so hopeless, like it wasn't going to be nothing.

After this, I just though it wasn't.

But once I got that coach, everything is different.

I'm smarter.

My decisions are much better.

I'll wake up with more hope than I can imagine.

Yes, everything is definitely different with her just being there, and somebody you can turn to and just give what you feel, your opinion.

And she's gonna say, "I don't think," or, "Yes, yes, that's a good idea."

- Yeah.

- And I'm very much different.

- So Cheryl was talking about how the idea here is to identify what you want, what you want to do and how you want your life to be and to help you get there.

Can you talk about what that means for you, what you want and where you wanna be?

- I wanna, from watching what they do and how they do it and how they allow me to help them when I'm needed, I want to be a peer support counselor coach.

I'm gonna be a certified coach.

So I have got my peer support coach certificate that needs to be certified with 500 hours, and they allow me to get those 500 hours.

And I'm also online at Grand Canyon University for my bachelor's in social work.

- Wow, wow.

- Because in peer support, they teach you a lot of things about, you know, helping, but that social work is gonna close my circle, let me helping everyone, whichever direction that I need to go.

So she did that.

My coach did that.

Well, everybody, because anybody I go to there, they're going to point me in the right direction.

- Yeah, Cheryl, this has gotta feel really good to hear Shoushanna talk about this, but you have this story, I imagine, in many places now.

- Absolutely, and as I'm listening to Shoushanna, I'm thinking about the impact across generations.

So here, this is what's really important is that the experience that Shoushanna has had, her kids won't have to experience that as adult people.

That's the critical piece.

And to see that we are listening, like we are listening to the voices of our families.

And, you know, historically in work, we've known better.

We know better for you, right?

But we've come away from that and realized that the power, their voices, are their voices and their dreams are their dreams.

And so we align ourselves with that and help them to reach that.

And so when we look at those five particular dimensions, Shoushanna has worked really hard, you know, around her finances, around getting her family stable, and then her own education.

And she's not just looking at a job, and that's a good thing.

She's looking at a career that can sustain her family and bring her joy.

And so our desire is for our families to not just thrive, but to flourish.

That is our desire.

- Wow, we've got a couple minutes left, but I wanna get a sense of, I guess, the scope of the success, you know, over that 10 years, how much you feel like you've been able to accomplish.

- Yeah, so you think of those numbers, and we're now doing evaluations of that.

Our passport has become one of the, no, twice, it's the second certified in the country.

And so we're looking at, over time, measuring what the success, and, you know, success for people, the definition is always like what does that really mean for us?

Does this one step mean that?

But that is the next phase of our work that we'll be able to come.

Right now, we're telling some great stories, and we can say that hundreds of people have been helped, but let's look at really the scale of that, and the opportunity to scale it up to other opportunities.

- [Stephen] That was gonna be my next question.

- So we're training now other organizations to do this type of model and coaching, so we're also enjoying sharing that with others.

- Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, it's great news and, you know, just sticking to one idea for 10 years is itself an incredible success.

So often we start things, and then we're like, "Ah, we're gonna do something else."

But congratulations on the work.

- [Cheryl] Yeah, thank you.

- And Shoushanna, of course, congratulations to you as well.

Thanks so much for being here.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

That's a time to raise awareness about mental health conditions, shift public perception, and share vital resources that can help prevent suicide.

Kevin Fischer, the Executive Director of the Michigan branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness has been a frequent guest here on our show.

Here's a conversation I had with him in 2024 about efforts to improve the lives of individuals and families who are affected by mental illness.

So September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

You know, I feel like in our community, in the Black community in particular, this takes on a different kind of dynamic perhaps than it does in others.

There's a real sense of shame, I think, that gets associated with mental illness and help for mental illness, and that drives a lot of what people are dealing with underground.

That happens even more astutely, I think, when we're talking about our young people.

- Absolutely, you know, I always tell people mental illness doesn't discriminate, neither does stigma, but stigma varies by community and culture, and the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide prevention in the African American community is very unique, and it is very powerful, and we need to address it.

- Yeah, yeah, so talk about some of the things that happened during suicide prevention month that you think help move the needle here.

- Well, one of the first things we need to do is increase awareness.

NAMI, for example, during the month of September, we host what we call NAMI walks events, which are very much like breast cancer awareness.

And while they are fundraising events for our local affiliates, most importantly, they are awareness raising events, and they're also behavioral healthcare fairs, help the community understand what resources are available and how to access those resources.

And equally as important, let's shed the stigma and the shame associated with mental illness so we can encourage people who need help to seek that help and then make it as easy as we possibly can to connect them with those resources so they can utilize them.

- Yeah, yeah, and I mean, this is an issue where the success of intervention is unquestioned, right?

When somebody gets help, when somebody intervenes with someone who's having a problem, we're able to prevent the worst from happening, but it is about that intervention, and it's about the awareness and the acknowledgement that someone needs help.

- It truly is.

You know, if we can remove the stigma associated with mental illness and encourage people to seek the help that they need, that's the battle.

With regard to suicide, you know, one of the most frustrating myths is that a person who decides to end their life, once they make that decision, there's nothing you can do.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

- That's right.

- In 90% of cases, people who have survived suicide attempts have told us, "I didn't want to die.

"I was trying to end an emotional pain."

And most said, "I just needed somebody to talk to."

- Yeah.

- And so not everybody needs a psychiatrist or psychologist, though if that's what you need, don't be afraid to do that.

But most people, especially specifically related to suicide, just need to be heard.

They find themselves in temporary situations.

They don't think there's a way out.

They're afraid to raise their hand and say, "I need help," again, especially in our community because we don't want to appear weak.

We don't want to appear needy.

And we need to understand that mental illness is a medical diagnosis.

It's not a choice.

It's not a weakness of character or faith.

And suicide, having suicidal thoughts is common.

Acting on those thoughts is not, and that there is help available.

- Yeah, yeah, so you lost your son to suicide 14 years ago, I believe.

- Correct.

- I wanna give you a chance to talk about that, the healing process that you've gone through and things that you would say to other parents and other people who are dealing with this issue.

- Yeah, so 14 years ago, June 27th, 2010, we lost my oldest son, Dominique, to suicide at age 23.

He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia about three years prior.

And we were totally ignorant to behavioral healthcare and all of that.

The healing journey for me has been one that's very interesting because after losing Dominique, and this is very common, you're 10 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation yourself after losing someone to suicide.

So I went through that.

I came very close to taking my own life.

I am very grateful and blessed that I did not go through with that.

I have a therapist.

I belong to support groups, but my work at NAMI is truly my real therapy.

Being a resource to others that Dominique and I didn't have is really helpful for me.

And so I always say I don't like the way I got here, but I'm glad I'm here, and I'm glad I'm able to help others who aren't aware of the resources that are available as Dominique and I were.

- Yeah, do you see progress over time in terms of getting people to be more aware, be less affected by stigma, and I guess more motivated to deal with kind of intervention and things like that?

- So awareness is increasing.

Unfortunately, stigma is also increasing, so that's really tough.

I just saw the most recent death by suicide numbers, and we experienced a slight decline.

In 2022, we lost 69 less people nationally to suicide than we did the previous year.

But keep in mind, those are staggering numbers.

Our death by suicide rate in the United States is at an all-time high.

Almost 50,000 people were lost to suicide.

That's twice as many people than we lose to homicide each year.

- Wow.

- So the numbers are really scary.

Stigma to me is still the leading culprit.

I believe that, and it's the most cost-effective way.

If we can normalize the conversation about mental illness, encourage people to get help, we can improve the quality of and save lives.

- The Detroit PBS "Destination Detroit" series tells the stories of the people who came to Southeast Michigan and helped shape the region's rich and diverse history.

Residents were invited to share stories about how their family settled in Michigan and the lives they built here.

Take a look at some of those stories.

- I am the first generation here in United States, straight to Detroit.

I've been here since November 2015.

(upbeat music) We came from somewhere else, but we have the responsibility and the homework to build this country as outsiders.

We can be more tolerant, we can give people grace, and we can understand others.

I am the first generation here in United States, straight to Detroit.

I've been here since November 2015.

I came as a refugee from Burundi.

At that time, my wife, she came before me two years before me, and we live in a shelter called Freedom House, not far from here.

It's a shelter for all the asylum seekers around the world, all refugees around the world.

They come, and they seek asylum.

Came to Detroit.

The community was amazing.

I felt very, very accepted in the community.

As I say, it's like I was confused with the culture here.

And then by asking question, by having more friends, they did a great job to guide me.

I won't be here and be successful business, to build a successful business without the community that we had.

You know, and especially restaurants, right?

Restaurants is something that you have to trust people before you go to eat at their restaurant.

Our slogan, it's called Detroit Ni Nyumbani is in Swahili, so it means Detroit is home.

It's a privilege for me to be in this situation because I can speak as a Detroiter, I can speak as a Burundian, so I can understand both sides.

Yeah.

(upbeat music) - Sometimes communication went through song and doors were opened because of the music.

(upbeat music) My family, the Jordans, the Cunninghams, the peoples, they were all people who sang through whatever they worked through at that time.

And we're talking about sharecropping in the fields in the South, Mississippi, Arkansas, Monroe, Louisiana, Bastrop, Louisiana.

And those songs stuck, and they're in the family.

They did a lot of quartet gospel, a lot of acapella gospel.

Yes, and jazz, and jazz.

My granddad also learned to play the drums once he moved up to Detroit.

So he played with a few jazz combos, and my father went on to sing with the Rod Lumpkin trio.

His name's Leslie Cunningham.

And so he had an extensive jazz background right here in Detroit, singing at like the legendary Baker's Keyboard Lounge, some of the other venues, the 20 Grand, West Grand.

When you talk about the opportunities that came from Black Bottom and from Baker's Keyboard Lounge, you gotta understand that was Maverick time.

They were paving the way.

This was a time when African Americans, there was a struggle in place, but there was also a strong community.

And so sometimes communication went through song, and doors were opened because of the music, and because music is universal for all, everybody hears you, and sometimes you can get your message across while you're on stage performing.

(upbeat music) - They migrated here and then had four children, and then out of those four children came the grandchildren.

(upbeat music) My grandfather, he was originally from Bessemer, Alabama.

I think the whole industrial revolution brought him here, and from what my mother was sharing with me, that he worked at an iron plant here when he came here to Michigan.

So my facts are vague.

They're here and there like a puzzle, but that is what I know.

And then from that, he married my grandmother, and she also was from Bessemer, Alabama.

And they met there, and they migrated here and then had four children, and then out of those four children came the grandchildren.

And so that was really my connection, honestly, my connection with this area of how we migrated here from the South.

Currently, I have a bookstore.

My husband and I have a bookstore downtown Ypsilanti called Blackstone Bookstore and Cultural Center.

My husband, he's from Ypsilanti.

He does a lot of the genealogy, and he has even traced my family.

I think this migration just of our culture, of our African American people, it just opened up opportunities for us.

(upbeat music) - And you can watch an hour long "Destination Detroit" documentary at detroitpbs.org/destinationdetrot or on the PBS app.

That's gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org, and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Across our MASCO family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

MASCO, a Michigan company since 1929.

- [Announcer] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation, Michigan Central, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(soothing tones)