Case Study

The undeniable impact of culturally competent outreach: In conversation with FunTimes Magazine

By Megan Lucero

November 13, 2024

As The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, a joint venture between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, enters its fifth and final year, we’re sharing insights, lessons, and best practices from our grantee-partners to better understand their impact and help shape the broader field. Sign up for The Lenfest Institute’s Solution Set newsletter to receive all the latest updates and posts sharing lessons from the Fund. 

FunTimes Magazine, the Philadelphia-based publication serving the African Diaspora, has set out to “shatter the stigma” and ensure its community can take “positive, affirmative action regarding their mental health.”  

In 2023, FunTimes launched its “988 Diaspora Campaign” and has built a unique coalition of newsrooms, Black healthcare organizations, mental health professionals, nonprofits, businesses, and cultural and faith-based organizations to disseminate information on mental health resources and the new 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 

Together, the coalition FunTimes built worked to engage communities through direct outreach and engagement across Philadelphia, with particular focus on the African Diaspora, which includes Africans, African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans/South Americans and Afro-Latinos.

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FunTimes Magazine has emphasized that Black and brown people have disproportionately been victims of fatal police shootings or unnecessarily harmful methods of restraint for individuals with mental health challenges. In 2022, the federal government created a mental health crisis hotline, 988 Lifeline, but many residents are still not aware of the resource. This project is aimed at creating awareness among Black and brown communities that the 988 Lifeline is an alternative to 911 when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis.

You can text or call 988 to access the 988 Lifeline. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States and its territories.

The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund supported FunTimes with a $100,000 grant as part of the Fund’s strategy to support the Philadelphia news ecosystem.

What follows is a lightly edited and condensed transcript of an exchange conducted over email with FunTimes Associate Publisher Sandy Lawrence. 

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Megan Lucero: What is the origin story of the 988 Diaspora Campaign for Mental Health? Why did you set this up? What was the call from your community?

Sandy Lawrence: The focus of this campaign was to create awareness of the new federal mental health crisis line 988 to the Black and brown community. FunTimes saw the positives of a 988 helpline to be considered as a valued resource for the community. We also realized that the awareness of existing systemic inequities and the historical mistrust of the health system to be a definite barrier to the Black community utilizing 988. FunTimes recognized that nationally and locally, minorities have disproportionately been victims of police fatal shootings or unnecessary harmful methods of restraint for individuals with mental health [challenges.] Such heightened existence of such situations increased community distrust. 

The community needed an insider source such as FunTimes to introduce the 988 resource to the community at large. FunTimes is respected and trusted as a resource for the community. We used traditional and progressive methods to reach the community. This included the communities of African/Caribbean immigrants and also Black/brown seniors and caregivers who require a less technical and more in-person convincing or informative platform to encourage utilizing the 988 support system. Visits to this particular population were included in our outreach. 

Lucero: You worked with local newsrooms, health organizations, educational institutions, and community groups. What were the key tenets that brought you all together and led to a successful collaboration? 

Lawrence:  FunTimes recognized that using a multi-organizational coalition and collaboration of networks and media newsrooms to disseminate information around 988 and mental health through community outreach was a necessary yet vulnerable link. 

Collaboration amplified the impact our partnership with local newsrooms, health organizations, educational institutions, and community groups developed. These efforts were instrumental in scaling the impact of our campaign. These collaborations allowed us to distribute 40,000 informational postcards, 10,000 leaflets, and 500 t-shirts and ensure consistent messaging across various media. 

Working together with these organizations, we created a unified front against misinformation and stigma surrounding mental health. Call 988 was the subliminal message used across all marketing tools and activities. It was the key to all outreach. The intention was to saturate Philadelphia area media and channels with the new crisis number and let it seep into people’s subconscious, much as the reflex recall of 911 is baked into our consciousness.

Lucero: Tell us about the campaign’s impact so far. What are some of the connections, convenings, creations and reporting that was generated as part of this campaign? Are there any outcomes you’re particularly proud of?

Lawrence: The project remains urgent and significant, as mental health issues continue to assume center stage because of the social-economic circumstances arising from the pandemic and its stressors. Yet people still need to be reminded of this mental health resource, and the federal government needs a continuing effort to promote 988. 

We maintain our magazine archives as an active resource. This list of culturally competent mental health providers was compiled and distributed during the project. We continue to include this listing at various event vendor tables.

FunTimes Magazine utilized various platforms including outdoor, indoor, legacy print, radio, TV, and online portals and references mental health and 988 in conversation and research tools. Below is an example of an event we held with faith leaders on the topic. The session discussed the secrecy of mental health and the challenge that even those within the faith community face to break the cycle of embarrassment, suppressed anger, and shame.

Lucero: You really took a unique and collaborative approach to reporting that involved gathering, collaborating and curating new information and organizing deeply with the community for better health outcomes. What did you learn about this process?

Lawrence: We learned that mental health is still a very cultural issue. 

One of the most critical lessons from the campaign was the undeniable impact of culturally competent outreach. FunTimes established a deeper connection and trust by leveraging community navigators who shared the same cultural backgrounds as the people we aimed to reach. It is necessary to build a ladder of trust with niche audiences; whether it be outreach to faith-based or community-based organizations, engaging the community in social media, recording events and articles to reference, as well as making inroads in the media outlets of the faith-based and community-organizations.

This approach facilitated open conversations about mental health and ensured that the information about the 988 crisis line was received in a supportive and understanding manner.

Lucero: What advice would you give to others (news orgs, community orgs and/or funders) who might be interested in pursuing a similar initiative? 

Lawrence: It is a fact that our community requires both traditional and non-traditional methods of communication. We must make an effort to creatively use social media outlets and grassroots efforts to reach the community. There is still a need for both, and the importance of culturally relevant storytelling is always to be included. We are multicultural and intergenerational so our approach must include both.