Full Frame

Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble is the founder of the AAKOMA Project, a nonprofit with a mission to meet the mental health needs of young people of color. The organization offers workshops, virtual counseling and consulting. 

Youth and young people of color experience barriers to accessing psychological care for reasons beyond economic disparities.

“People worry about how they’re going to be treated when they get into that mental health professional’s chair because there are different outcomes by different aspects of identity,” Breland-Noble said. “We also know that our research literature has not done the best job of developing interventions and understanding mental illness across all different types of populations.”

The AAKOMA Project is working with researchers and institutions to collect data about youth of color on mental health, which can help drive policy changes.

By 2050, we will need 56 percent more food to feed 10 billion people, according to the World Resources Institute. But our global food system is challenged by climate change. How can we create a sustainable food system without using more land? Florence Reed works with farmers in Central America to restore degraded farmland and introduce regenerative farming practices. She is the founder of Sustainable Harvest International. “If all 500 million of those smallholder farmers around the world made this transition, they could get us 53% of the way to the United Nations goal for greenhouse gas reductions,” she said.

Daily headlines about shootings flood the news in the United States. As the shootings continue, how do those touched by gun violence move forward? Ryane Nickens has lost three family members to gun violence. She's the founder of the nonprofit The TraRon Center that offers counseling programs, therapeutic arts, and workshops to raise community consciousness about the impact of gun violence.

The topic of climate change has been a key concern for decades. In order to save the planet nations have pledged to lower their carbon footprint in half by 2030. 

The World Health Organization predicts that if something isn’t done, there will be around 250,000 deaths annually between 2030 and 2050, all linked to climate occurrences. Full Frame speaks with Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

How has the relationship between China and the United States developed in the last 50 years, and where do relations stand today?

How can art advance social justice? Los Angeles-based artist Nikkolas Smith calls himself an artivist, bringing activism into his artwork.