Profiles in Mentoring: Indya A. Walker on Centering Resilience in the Face of Community Violence

Indya A. Walker, M.S., is a PhD candidate and Minerva Scholar at The University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). She previously served in a mentorship program, witnessing firsthand the strength and perseverance of young men navigating adversity. In her research now, she seeks to ensure that the experiences and resilience of these young men are accurately reflected in academic literature and inform meaningful policy and programmatic change.

We recently had the opportunity of speaking with Indya about her recent paper on resilience among Black boys and young men exposed to community violence, featured here in The Chronicle.

Chronicle (C): What inspired you to study resilience among Black boys and young men exposed to community violence? 

Indya A. Walker (IAW): Before becoming a researcher, I had a background in the nonprofit space and worked for a mentorship program under Communities in Schools of Greater Greensboro called the African American Male Initiative. It was here that I really saw resilience before I really started using the term. Boys continued to show up in the classroom, with their mentors, at activities, etc despite all that they were experiencing at home and in their neighborhoods / communities. I loved what I was doing and the students and families that I got to engage with every day, but I wanted to make sure that what I saw in them on a daily basis was represented in the literature that I was reading. I felt lead to fill that gap. 

C: How did the AOCD framework shape your research process, and what unique insights did it provide? 

IAW: This framework really laid the foundation for our team to really get a more comprehensive picture of the community violence taking place in the city of Greensboro. Being able to understand through multiple data sources and methods: where violence was taking place, who the key players were, and the underlying dynamics within the city impacting what has and hasn’t been done to move the needle on this issue was essential. Most importantly, we were able to speak to Black boys, men, and families directly impacted by community violence. The AOCD framework really afforded us an opportunity to gather a perspective on violence in the city that went both deep and wide so that we could place violence in context and center the voices of those directly impacted. 

C: Based on your research, what are the most urgent policy or programmatic changes needed to support resilience in this population? 

IAW: Establishing and supporting new and existing programs and initiatives that provide safe spaces in the community where impacted young Black boys and men who have experienced violence can express and process what they have been through. Provide opportunities for them to connect with mentors, especially those with similar lived experiences, as the social support that a caring adult can provide can be extremely helpful in navigating life after experiencing violence. However, aside from needing sustainable infrastructure and funding to run well, it is important to note that such initiatives and programs may have limited impacts if they aren’t accompanied by policies to address the root causes of community violence including legacies of racism and poverty.