Our VAlues

Connecting a community of young black men

At Hood Mentality, we seek to connect YBM together. This helps us to understand that we have shared experiences and are not alone. Hood Mentality understands that environmental barriers to expression can lead to mental health injury. We create spaces where YBM can describe their experiences without feeling the need to justify their existence. To encourage a general feeling of acceptance and belonging we facilitate this by hosting spaces for YBM by YBM to heal ourselves and each other.

Nurturing honesty and openness

We at Hood Mentality believe that feeling the need to have to wear a mask to fit in is a major contributor to mental health injury. For us, expression is a cornerstone to our approach to processing mental health injury. The more authentic the expression the more capacity that expression has for healing. This means we want to nurture honesty and openness to allow for the most authentic expression possible. At the same time, we at Hood Mentality want to work in the most authentic way possible to show it is possible to be both professional and black.

Dedicated to transparency, trust, and discipline

We at Hood Mentality are driven to give YBM the agency to change their lives, themselves, and their communities. We want to effect change with the support of and in support of YBM. Our representation of YBM must be built upon trust, the way we get there is through transparency and discipline. In order to bring about widespread change takes a commitment to something bigger than ourselves.

Inviting inclusion through mutual respect

We at Hood Mentality put respect at the forefront of everything we do. We invite YBM to take agency in their own lives and in their communities. In order to encourage authentic expression, we also ask for maximum respect so we can make sure we value each voice in our community. We believe authenticity and respect make space for harmony between voicing and listening.

Self-elevating wellness to uplift others

We at Hood Mentality act locally while thinking globally. We encourage members of our communities to develop self-care in order to better uplift others around them.