Mental Wealth Alliance founder Charlamagne Tha God (Photo: Business Wire)

“My founding of the Mental Wealth Alliance is the manifestation of a deeply personal vision,” says Charlamagne, cultural architect and co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club, heard by over 4.5 million weekly listeners worldwide on the platform that has become one of the most widespread vehicles for conversation around mental health. “I believe improving Black mental health is a core tenet of restoring souls, igniting wealth, and inspiring upliftment for Black America.”

A brainchild of Charlamagne himself, the groundbreaking effort will raise $100 million over 5 years and will partner with Black-led organizations and experts to activate MWA’s three major pillars of life changing impact:

• Train: prepare thousands of Black people to become research and clinical services providers in psychology, social work, and related fields through training and by establishing scholarship funds to provide training to increase the number of mental health care professionals from 4% to 14% to mirror the underserved population in need of culturally aligned mental health support.
• Teach: advocate for the implementation of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mental Health Literacy (MHL) in public K-12 education nationwide at federal, state, and local levels.
• Treat: support culturally competent organizations in providing free therapy to more than 10 million Black Americans within 5 years through the support of existing organizations and funding of the establishment of new organizations.

Charlamagne has openly reflected on his journey of self-discovery and healing though psychotherapy to address trauma, anxiety, and depression by chronicling his lived experience in the global bestselling book, Shook One, published by Simon & Schuster. He has long been an outspoken advocate on the issue, working tirelessly with leaders at local, state, and federal levels to support much needed legislation on Black mental health. Most recently, he shared his vision with Vice President Kamala Harris during her candidacy in support of her mental health platform for America. MWA is excited to support HR 5469, the PURSUING EQUITY IN MENTAL HEALTH ACT bill authored by Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, to ensure focused support for Black mental health.

Uniquely situated at the epicenter of the shifting tectonic plates of Black culture, Charlamagne has frequently served as a catalyzing leader at the forefront of the national mental health conversation. His transparent disclosure of mental health issues combined with an incredibly pervasive media footprint have fissured the ground for the crucial guard-dropping discussions that are re-shaping the societal landscape. Through the honest disclosing of his own mental health journey amid the loss of many close friends to suicide, Charlamagne has not only highlighted the devastations of untreated mental illness but has also become a lodestone drawing others to follow in his footsteps.

With an influence spanning the intersectionality of culture and all the sectors that the mounting mental health crisis impacts, Charlamagne has also brought into sharp focus the extent to which mental illness often goes undiagnosed and untreated. Inside the profound glare of the spotlight in entertainment, sports, and other public eye professions, myriad celebrities have come forward to reveal their own struggles, finding inspiration for doing so in Charlamagne’s words and deeds.

“A strange thing happens when you start to tell your story,” says Charlamagne. “It encourages other people to tell theirs, and slowly but surely the stigma around mental health in the Black community starts to dissipate, because folks learn that it’s ok to not be ok and more importantly seek help for not being ok. It was never in my plans to become a mental health advocate, but after I started discussing my journey, writing about it in my second book, Shook One, talking about therapy, and sharing life experiences with listeners, a lot of people reached out to me. I want to be a part of providing that help. That’s why I created MWA.”

As many organizations look to shift their own cultures and invest in significant change, many have found MWA—with its foregrounding of the importance of cultural competence when assessing and treating Black mental health issues and its comprehensive strategy for creating lasting outcomes—to be an intelligent prescription for righting what has been systemically wrong for so long. With impressively generous contributions already arriving from major corporations and high-profile individuals inspired by the cause, MWA is off to an auspicious start and is well-positioned to achieve phenomenal success.