Reports

The EMHF delineates practical implementation strategies for higher education leaders, faculty, and staff. These recommendations incorporate structural changes in policy and practice that can reduce the stigma associated with student mental health challenges, increase proactive responses from colleges and universities, and provide more opportunities for students of color to thrive.

In 2018, the Steve Fund and The Jed Foundation partnered to begin a pilot implementation of the Equity in Mental Health Framework with a cohort of 18 colleges and universities around the U.S. The EMHF contains recommendations and implementation strategies to help colleges and universities support, promote, and institutionalize the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast deeply-ingrained inequities in American society into stark view. Just as pre-existing health conditions have made individuals more vulnerable to COVID-19, structural racism has made certain communities more vulnerable to the disease. The Steve Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the mental and emotional well-being of students of color, created a Crisis Response Task Force to develop recommendations for mitigating the mental health risks for these students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic and social upheaval that has followed.