“I’ve been asked to sit on two taskforces regarding The Hispanic/Latinx spread of COVID-19 in Charlotte. These round tables include people from local business, healthcare professionals, and representatives from outreach organizations. I am the youngest person on both.”
When Ismael graduated from high school in 2016 and enrolled in Davidson College to study Public Health, he had no idea that four years later he would be graduating again... into a world that deeply needed his leadership.
“At the root, I really wanted to help people in need. Public Health catered to my interest in overall health, while also allowing me to focus on social health disparities — specifically mental health disparities in historically marginalized people."
2015: Ismael as a StreetLeader with an elementary student who is now a Sophomore StreetLeader at our South Boulevard Site!
Ismael was a part of the first generation of StreetLeaders at UrbanPromise’s South Boulevard Site, eventually serving as a StreetLeader Captain. At UP, he began his own mental health journey and developed a heart for supporting children.
“When I was at UP, mental health was definitely addressed, just not in ways that were interventional yet. But [the staff] created safe spaces, and that was important for everyone. As a StreetLeader, seeing the innocence in the children made me really passionate about protecting that. The real world can be ugly, and [childrens’ happiness] shouldn’t be robbed. But knowing you can be there to help them process any traumas at the appropriate time is very important.”
UrbanPromise began our official mental health counseling partnership with Christ-Centered Community Counseling (C4) in 2018, two years after Ismael graduated from high school.
Now all of UP’s junior and senior StreetLeaders have access to free, on-site mental health counseling.
"If access to C4 had been available [when I was a StreetLeader], I think it probably would have helped me realize some things earlier that I couldn’t figure out on my own. I’m thinking about experiences that can be defined as trauma, but aren’t always realized as trauma because you might come from an environment where those experiences or behaviors are so ingrained. For example, inequalities like food insecurity — I didn’t even take notice to that [as a traumatic experience] until further on, because it was so common in my community.”
Even though Ismael wasn’t able to receive the benefits of mental health counseling with C4 as a StreetLeader, his journey and expertise have led him to a unique opportunity as a StreetLeader Alum!
“UrbanPromise connected me with C4 after graduation. Now I serve as the Practice Manager — overseeing C4’s operations.”
That’s an important job... and it’s not all Ismael is up to these days.
At the time of this writing, more than a third of COVID cases in Mecklenburg county were reported from the Hispanic community, even though the Hispanic population in Charlotte only totals about 14%.
This type of social health disparity is exactly what Ismael hoped to address when he chose to study Public Health, and he has wasted no time putting his passion and leadership to work.
"I’ve been asked to sit on two taskforces regarding The Hispanic/Latinx spread of COVID-19 in Charlotte. These round tables include people from local business, healthcare professionals, and representatives from outreach organizations. I am the youngest person on both.”
Ismael may be young, but his voice is powerful.
“I offer a lot of really great insight because of my background. I was raised in Charlotte on the west side, in a mixed immigrant family. Now I’m educated on public health, and I can speak directly as a member of my community.”
In addition to lending his voice, Ismael is also lending a hand. He’s connecting families in his community to assistance with utilities, rent, and medicine, and he’s helping healthcare agencies locate accessible COVID testing sites in west Charlotte. He’s also been advising the Charlotte Health Department and the CDC on issues related to the spread of COVID-19 in his community, particularly the spread amongst young people.
The long-term goal of UP’s StreetLeader program is to invite students into a lifetime of servant leadership geared towards restoring their communities.
Ismael’s unique blend of life experience and training is exactly what Charlotte needs in this moment, and we are proud to support him as he steps into his role as a city leader!
Through our Counseling Program, UrbanPromise provides all of our 11th and 12th grade StreetLeaders with free year-round counseling from licensed professional counselors. The ultimate goal of the counseling program is that StreetLeaders will improve their emotional, psychological, and social well-being and build healthy and resilient lives.
Get to know C4, our counseling partner, in the video below!