Building Pathways into Behavioral Health Careers for Men of Color
Kyle Burnett, Caroline Chovanes, Estelle Eustache, Tiffany Granger, Michaela Merla, and Kelline Muoa
Policy Research Practicum Prepared for New York City Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Laura R. Peck
NYC Men Heal is a workforce development pilot program, to be implemented by the Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) in the Fall of 2026. The program is designed to support men of color (MoC) in building rewarding careers in behavioral health professions, including social work and mental health counseling. The program is intended to address three related needs. The first is a need for greater support of MoC’s entry, retention, and long-term success in the field. Next, the program aims to help diversify the behavioral health workforce by reducing systemic barriers through social, economic, educational, and career support shaped by participants’ lived experiences and perspectives. The third need is to facilitate mental and behavioral health of young men and boys of color, improving their health-seeking behaviors by having a more representative workforce.
This study builds on research conducted by the Service Design Studio (SDS) at the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity). It is intended to provide program collaborators, including the New York City Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, the Office of Community Mental Health (OCMH), and YMI, with additional insight to inform the design of the NYC Men Heal pilot program. To do this, the researchers synthesized prior literature, fielded a survey, conducted interviews, and explored potential partnerships with existing organizations. This report is organized as follows: after framing the problem and summarizing existing research, we turn to the survey results, interview results and the partner landscape findings, before discussing and concluding. Key terms used throughout this report are defined in Box 1.
Appendices include additional detail on the methods and data, along with survey and data collection instruments