MINNEAPOLIS — Teens Makya Butler and Eythan Israel often play basketball at the Jerry Gamble Boys & Girls Club in north Minneapolis.
As NBA fans, they're pumped over a partnership with Karl-Anthony Towns.
"He's using like where he's at now, his fame and all that, to focus on teen mental health," Israel explained.
The Minnesota Timberwolves announced Tuesday that "Towns has been cleared for full-contact, 5-on-5 basketball activities." The four-time NBA All-Star has been out with a knee injury since mid-March.
And last week, he launched a fundraising campaign named after his #32 jersey called 32 Wellness Challenge, asking fans to donate $32 or more to Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities to support its therapy programming youth can access for free across all 13 sites.
"The young people have been buzzing around here talking about it," said Ceejay Jackson, director of the Jerry Gamble branch.
Jackson started the pilot program a couple of years ago, first bringing in licensed professionals from Life Curation PLLC and later adding Ujima Therapy and Your Time Therapeutic Services.
"And they don't just show up as therapists," Jackson said. "They come down here. They will play basketball with them … When we started, a lot of kids really couldn't identify a lot of emotions outside anger and happiness … A young person comes in and they're pretty closed off, and you see in time a few months down the road them open up them being able to talk about things."
According to Mental Health America, last year about 15% of Minnesota teens experienced severe major depression.
Butler and Israel say they've gone to many therapy sessions with their peers.
"There's sometimes where somebody had the same traumatic event and they connect off that and that's a new friendship," Israel said. "The fact that we get our opportunity to talk about our community and have our community have a voice is really amazing."
"Maybe their mom and them aren't on the best of terms and just personal stuff with family. It doesn't always have to be the gun violence you know because that's almost - I don't want to say a daily basis thing - but it's commonly known," Butler added.
Simply put, 32 Wellness Challenge is a chance to support their support groups.
"Sometimes, it's not even always money," Jackson said. "Come in, be a mentor to a young person."
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