Kente Circle Training Institute

Communities who have been historically excluded due to their race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are more likely to experience poor mental health outcomes. A global pandemic, rising unemployment, housing and food insecurity, and a widespread uprising against racialized police violence have increased the need for therapists of color to heal and support our communities. 

However, Minnesota’s mental health workforce is almost exclusively white identified and mental health training and education is white centered. 

Kente Circle Training Institute (KCTI) is leading the charge to build a more diverse and culturally competent mental health workforce.

With your gift on Give to the Max Day, we will:  

• Engage community to proactively address the shortage of mental health providers of color.
• Embrace all forms of diversity by offering ethnically and culturally relevant training experiences.
• Empower trainees to develop and sustain mental healthcare practices and policy for culturally diverse communities.
• Equip training participants with new information, skills, and knowledge necessary to grow individually and collectively. 

 Here’s a quote from one of over 500 participants at our Fall Conference: 

“The speakers were all passionate about their work and that motivated me to do better for my community and partner with my brothers and sisters. Coming from immigrant parents that came from Somalia, I felt the pain and suffering my Black people went through and are still going through.”

Your financial support ensures opportunities like our Fall Conference are available and accessible, so we can all be motivated to do better for our communities and know we are not alone in this work. Together, we will transform the mental health care field by centering marginalized voices and creating the healing structure needed for our communities to thrive.

 Thank you for your investment in Kente Circle Training Institute!