Health & Science Lifestyle & Culture
Food, fellowship and Black male mental health
By Robert Doyle
They dub their monthly potluck “The Medicine.” On Father’s Day, they provide free acupuncture and haircuts. They do sound baths for those interested in it. They provide supplies for fathers and their children to do arts and crafts together.
Because of what they offer, they named their organization Men at Work Healing.
“We realized men move a little bit differently than women,” said Dauod Abeid, a Reiki practitioner and co-founder of the group, which mainly serves Black men. “The only way men are really going to come do this stuff is if they feel a sense of brotherhood.”
Men at Work Healing launched in 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Its founders were looking for ways to teach about, encourage and improve Black men’s physical and, especially, their mental health. The Office of Minority Health suggests that Black adults were 11% less likely to report having a mental health issue and 36% less likely to receive treatment.
Also, suicide rates for Black people rose by 53% between 2014 and 2024, according to a May 2026 analysis of federal data by Capital B news. “The crisis for young Black men peaks between ages 20 and 24, with a death rate of 319 per 100,000 – the highest of any age group,” according to Capital B. Black boys and men aged 16 to 29 died by suicide at a rate higher than white boys and men.
Part of the problem is the lack of mental health professionals and some Black men’s reluctance to admit they need and get help, research has shown. Researchers also have said that erasing the stigma of seeking treatment for emotional and mental health often starts in the community, including through grassroots organizations that are focused on wellness.
Abeid is among Black men, he said, who grew up in a neighborhood with troubling, traumatizing levels of Black-on-Black crime. He witnessed it. He watched an uncle drink himself to death.
“We’ve built a culture of self-lynching,” Jilani added. “We are literally self-destructing.”
While students at Syracuse University, the men cultivated a brotherly bond that shapes the community work they do now. Back on that upstate New York campus, they had exchanged ideas on various topics, shared what they were going through and held each other accountable, including to their college studies and their activism through the Five Percenters, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam.
“Reach one, teach one” is their motto and mission. It’s how Men at Work Healing operates.
“We see it as an endeavor to teach people. It’s imperative that we share mental, emotional, spiritual practices with our community,” Jilani said.
Jilani credits Abeid with teaching him about prioritizing his own wellness and for influencing his outlook on what he can do to help uplift the community.
Abeid first learned those ideals from his parents, who’d been members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. “[W]hen you see something that is lacking, it is your responsibility to take it on.”
Men at Work Healing began informally. The four co-founders started out, they said, simply by helping youth in Brooklyn fix their bikes or by encouraging them to stay in school.
Over time, the organization became more structured. Its focus turned toward men and reaching them through gatherings such as a weekly conversation in Herbert Von King Park. It’s attracting a growing number of listeners, including passersby who simply come within earshot of what’s being shared.
A Juneteenth celebration and a mid-September block party are among Men at Work Healing’s upcoming events.
“This isn’t something we turn on and off. We will do it for free because it’s our passion,” Abeid. He spoke while sitting alongside Jilani in that park, which is near where they both grew up. They didn’t know each other as kids.
“We grew up in the city, we’ve been through things, we got our stripes. It gives us what’s necessary to reach those brothers who otherwise wouldn’t participate.” Abeid said.
“We don’t just want to be medicine for the headache, we want to help people understand why they’re getting headaches — so they can do something different.”