Red Hook Initiative
We work with Red Hook youth to support their healing through counseling and supportive services in a nonclinical community-based setting, aiming to break down the stigma surrounding access to wellness care.
Our Approach
The Health & Wellness Team provides participants with a central point for wellness support and resources at Red Hook Initiative. We view wellness as multi-faceted and seek to build an ecosystem of healing for residents of Red Hook and its youth. Our work at the individual, group, and community levels intends to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by helping youth achieve self-actualization, reach better outcomes, and create a safer and healthier community that moves from surviving to thriving. We are working to embed healing into our day-to-day work with young people and we’re committed to reducing the organizational barriers between the youth we serve and the emotional health and healing support they need.
What We Do
The team collaborates with participants to provide referrals, resources, and orientation on mental health and wellness services. We do this by providing Wellness Sessions, Individual Counseling, and Crisis Management. Counseling is an opportunity to have a counselor support you in exploring yourself, your desires, needs, and wants and your place in the world. It is also an opportunity to practice preferred or new ways of being. Our team considers counseling an opportunity to shift away from problem-solving (except when urgent) to sitting with unknowns to find new routes to healing.
Individual Support
Individual Sessions
Ongoing short-term (less than 6 months) or long-term (6 months to a year) counseling with a Health & Wellness Team Member. During this process, you will be able to guide the conversation. In this non-judgmental space, the goal is to increase understanding of one’s thought and behavior patterns to help increase function and well-being. In counseling, you can learn how to manage stress, relationship difficulties, and troubling situations effectively
Time: 45 minutes – 60 minutes
Wellness Sessions
A one-time session in which you meet with a member of the Health & Wellness Team. This serves as an opportunity for the team to get to know you. We also use this as a time to check in on how things are going at home, at school, in your relationships, and in your community. We hope that this will be a start to a new relationship with the Health & Wellness Team!
Time: 30 – 60 minutes
Drop-In/Check-In-Link to Schedule a Meeting
Not an individual counseling session or a Wellness Session, but a quick one time check-in with a member of the Health & Wellness Team to chat about any help or support needed in the moment.
Time: Varies
Peer Healing Groups
Young Adults Healer Group
More details coming soon!
Healing Through the Arts
Stayed tuned for more information on our next event!
Ecosystem of Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Who We Are
Karen V. Ross, LMSW (she/her)
Director of Health & Wellness
Karen V. Ross, LMSW (she/her)
Director of Health & Wellness
Karen@rhicenter.org
Fun fact: “I love to dance and used to teach dance classes in the community.
Jasmin Banaei (they/them)
Clinical Counselor
Jasmin Banaei (they/them)
Clinical Counselor
Jasmin@rhicenter.org
Fun fact: “I love facilitating group healing spaces.”
Najee Hunt, MSW (he/him)
Clinical Counselor
Najee Hunt, MSW (he/him)
Clinical Counselor
Najee@rhicenter.org
Fun fact: “Writing brings me peace and calms my mind.”
Airiel Martinez
Young Adult Facilitator
Airiel Martinez
Young Adult Facilitator
Airiel (pronounced Air-re-yell) Martinez is first generation, born and raised in Brooklyn. and has a strong interest in community health and development. She is currently in the process of obtaining her masters degree in psychology, and has experience working at Red Hook Farms, and in a nursing home. Airiel loves helping people and does this work because she wants to be a representative voice to advocate for and educate on Black mental health. She has wanted to work in mental health since elementary school after witnessing the treatment of those with disabilities. Airiel loves books, the outdoors and in her spare time, when she is not working or in class, Airiel can be found focusing on her self-care and skincare routine.
Kai Morris (she/her)
Young Adult Facilitator
Kai Morris (she/her)
Young Adult Facilitator
Kai has worked in many fields before becoming a YA Facilitator, most have involved helping others with things that were essential in keeping things together. She does this work, because she actually loves trying new things and wants to try a different path in my life. Originally Kai is from Red Hook and has been doing healing work in her own life for a while. She looks forward to focusing on facilitating a smaller group to gain experience to excel in life.
Interests:
Kai loves Anime (ex. Soul Eater, Seven Deadly Sins, Blood Lad)
Kai love listening to music and hearing new songs
She is a tiny high pitched sweet and optimistic demon that lurks in the shadows of RHI
Kaniyah Fuller
Young Adult Facilitator
Kaniyah Fuller
Young Adult Facilitator
Kaniyah Fuller is this year’s YA Facilitator. Born in Brooklyn, and raised in North Carolina, Kaniyah moved to Red Hook when she was 15 and started in the RHI High School Program. There, Kaniyah was accepted into the Peer Health Counselors group. She fell in love with health and wellness, and developed an interest in helping others overcome their own hardships. After graduating from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with her Bachelor’s in Psychology, Kaniyah came back to Red Hook and joined the Peer Healing Program. Kaniyah has experience in both group and individual counseling, assisting with the youth, and program/workshop planning. Her interests include listening to music, reading fanfiction work, watching nerdy movies/shows, joining fandoms, and eating whatever her heart desires. She likes to work with diverse people in respectful and comfortable settings.
