Throughout Vic Mensa's career, he has always been very vocal in speaking up for his beliefs and how he feels. His latest push for social justice has come in the form of a nonprofit called SaveMoneySaveLife.

The establishment will focus on two key initiatives. StreetMedics, a program to train first responders in Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, placing mental health professionals in Chicago’s at-risk schools and UniVerse, an education program targeting indigenous and black youth via a summer mentorship program conceived while protesting at Standing Rock.

SaveMoneySaveLife launches today, March 16, where the rapper will spearhead a food and art-filled inaugural gala at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall alongside fellow Chicagoan Jamila Woods. All proceeds will go to SaveMoneySaveLife.

In an interview with Billboard, Mensa expresses his desire to help the kids of Chicago better themselves, their city and their mental health.

"I’ve been doing social justice work for some time, just out of my own resources and out of my own pocket, just because it’s important to me," Mensa explains. "So whether that’s taking a bunch of people from Chicago down to Standing Rock or being in Flint, Michigan, or being in Palestine or Baton Rouge after Alton Sterling’s killing, I’ve been trying to, just as a man, be present and stand with the struggling and oppressed people around the world. I just thought I could broaden my impact and my reach by starting a non-profit and putting investment into our community."

"All of our initiatives, to begin with, are going to be very Chicago-focused," Mensa says of SaveMoneySaveLife. "Oftentimes, people ask me, 'What is the main cause of the unrest in Chicago?' And I point to the lack of investment in the community. To everything being sapped from the community. To young men being snatched up and generations of fathers being imprisoned. And drugs being pumped into the community. And guns being pumped into the community. But there’s still no positive constructive resources being put into the community."

He goes on to explain the extreme levels of trauma that many kids in the black community are facing and how it is affecting their mental health. Trauma, Mensa says, is the thing that we need to teach kids how to process and heal from.

"The amount of trauma that the kids in these neighborhoods are dealing with is almost unprecedented, in what we consider to be first-world society. These murders are affecting everyone, every single person in the community. And this violence and this police brutality and the drugs. Almost everybody I know has seen someone they love killed in front of them. But it’s very rare that they get an opportunity to talk to somebody about the trauma and to work through it."

"Because that’s the only way you can really heal: by processing it and working through it," he continues. "So I wanted to specifically focus on kids around the age of fifth or sixth grade because they’re still at a point where things can really be turned around and where they can really shape and decide how they want to grow into adolescence. I don’t believe on giving up on people at all, but I’m not too far removed from high school, and so I know that a lot of times, those four years are dictated by how you come into them."

Vic Mensa proves he's more than just a rapper, and his activism continues to help reshape our communities.

UniVerse

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