A ‘love letter’ to Richmond’s young people: Rich City Kickback focuses on wellness for the next generation

Inside the “wellness center” at Rich City Kickback, the air is fragrant with copal incense as people roam from booth to booth at the Richmond Recreation Center, visiting with various healers. 

“If you come here, it’s like another version of therapy,” said Silver Parker, after finishing her first ever reiki session and waiting for an astrology reading. 

Silver, 22, said that her generation is struggling to navigate a stressful world and looking for ways to relieve that stress. 

“You can see that people do want to have more of a peaceful mindset,” Silver said. “Because the world right now is not the best.”

The fourth annual Rich City Kickback last Saturday was a wellness festival designed by young adults. Their message: let’s expand how we think of mental health care. 

The free one-day event had the energy of a block party. Over a dozen booths lined the parking lot. A DJ played Bay Area rap. Community members received free haircuts, press-on nails and tooth gems. They participated in craft activities like beaded keychain making. Inside the auditorium, the atmosphere was serene. Healers gave free tarot and astrology readings, reiki, acupuncture and massage. 

Xiomara Rivas was waiting to get a numerology reading – a session promising personal insights based on the numbers in your birth date. Rivas said there aren’t enough places outside work and home where young adults can hang out and do healthy activities. 

“It’s amazing to see that community spaces like this are possible,” said Rivas, 26.  “A lot of people in today’s world are struggling and to be able to have something like this — it brings us together, brings us hope.”

The event was organized by the nonprofit YES Nature to Neighborhoods, which advocates for wellness through connection to the environment. Diane Sanchez, an advocacy coordinator at YES, says young people are less interested in traditional therapy or medicine as a treatment for mental health.  So she thought, “Let’s meet them where they’re at — what are other modalities that we can explore?”

Rich City Kickback was born from this question and wants to send the message to young adults that there are myriad ways to practice wellness, said Michelle Nguyen, who organized the event. Nguyen also runs the young adult program Teaching Racial Environmental Empowerment Series at YES. The program focuses, in part, on substance abuse prevention and is aimed at 18-to-26-year-olds. It’s funded by money from Proposition 64, which legalized adult cannabis use in California. 

“Young people are being plagued by a lot of different stressors,” Nguyen said. Often, their first instinct, she said, is to vape or drink or get cannabis. 

The TREES program operates on a harm reduction model, meaning that it is not anti-drug, but instead provides youth with healthy alternatives to substances as a means to cope. Rich City Kickback is the program’s attempt to bring these alternatives into the larger Richmond community. 

Rich City Kickback It is also answering a call from young adults in Richmond who say they want more community spaces that offer culturally relevant paths to wellness. In addition to talk therapy, they’re seeking places to connect with one another and explore traditional practices, including herbal medicine and cleansing rituals such as Mexican limpias — both of which were offered at the event.

“A lot of the wellness that young people are getting is mostly through the internet, which keeps them isolated,” Nguyen said.

The event counters that isolation by bringing people together in person and giving TREES participants hands-on experience in building community. As part of that goal, the event opened with a youth-led panel where TREES participants shared stressors like financial stress and isolation. They called on city and county leaders to invest more deeply in youth mental health initiatives that go beyond talk therapy. 

“Young people are really calling for more spaces like this where they can go and find community, wellbeing, and opportunities,” said YES Executive Director Eric Aaholm. “The city should really pick up the mantle of providing these spaces on a more regular basis.”

Back outside, the energy continues to build as attendees move between booths for free services, craft activities, and conversations with local organizations. Oakland rapper seiji oda steps up to the mic, his lyrics about cultivating inner peace echoing the event’s mission. 

Before his set, Nguyen takes the stage to remind the crowd why they’re there: “Rich City Kickback is a love letter to our young people,” she said. “Your wellness matters — and if there’s nowhere else that you feel loved or seen, know that you are loved and seen here.”

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