Denise Sinclair
Voices of Resistance: Exploring Mental Health and Coping Among Justice-Involved Black Youth
Black youth may experience disproportionate surveillance, criminalization and punitive responses, while their own accounts of the emotional effects of these experiences remain underrepresented in research. Denise’s project focuses on Black male youth aged 12 to 20 who have encountered the youth justice system.
The study seeks to understand how young people interpret racialized interactions, how those experiences relate to mental well-being and what coping strategies and community supports they consider meaningful.
Approach and methodology
Guided by phenomenology and an intersectional perspective, the study will use in-depth qualitative interviews to centre participants’ lived experiences. Its planned analysis will explore emotional distress, resilience, coping and resistance, alongside the types of community-based support that participants identify as helpful.
Expected contribution
The anticipated findings could inform youth justice and mental health services that are more equitable, trauma-informed and culturally responsive. The project aims to connect structural experiences of racism with young people’s own accounts of their mental health, without presuming what those accounts will reveal.
About the researcher
Denise Sinclair is a youth-justice professional and community advocate who moved to Canada from Jamaica at age 17. She earned a diploma in Community and Justice Services and a degree in criminal justice at Humber Polytechnic.
She works as a Youth Services Officer and is pursuing a master’s degree in Child and Youth Care at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her community involvement includes initiatives supporting Black students’ engagement and success, as well as local community-service organizations.
