Founder and Director of Black People Talk (BPT).
Yannick Yalipende is from central African/Nigerian, he is the Founding Director of Black People Talk (BPT); an initiative he co-developed with the sole purpose of supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the UK’s Black community, through psychoeducational and therapeutic peer support groups.
Yannick’s professional background involves work across various parts of the mental health sector such as acute adult mental health, Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICU), rehabilitation/step-down and later life wards, child-centered play therapy, and Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) mentoring.
Challenge
As a Black African man, the biggest challenge I have faced is racism; be it institutional or individual, overt or covert, and of course, the lasting personal after-effects of it.
The more introspection I do, the more I realize that the biggest challenge I have faced and will continue to daily is winning the battle over the negative, socially-induced internal narrative that acts as a hindrance to my progress.
Impacts & Solution
Exposure, visibility, and networking are invaluable to this much-needed shift in narrative.
This platform is knocking all three out of the park! African contributions to STEM have been great, but unfortunately, they are not being showcased enough and are often erased by the negative framing that society creates around Black lives.
The best way to combat this is to create our platforms, mentor and support ourselves and those to come through the journey.