At the Ujima Adult and Family Services Center and Roots Community Health Center, walking through the doors feels like entering a cultural sanctuary. Adorned with portraits of Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King Jr., along with African masks, drums, and inspirational proverbs, the space affirms and celebrates Black identity. For many in San Jose’s Black community, these clinics provide more than medical and mental health care — they offer connection, validation, and cultural safety.
The two organizations operate under one roof and frequently share clients. Ujima focuses on behavioral health from an African-centered perspective, while Roots provides primary and preventive care with a similar cultural approach.
Yvonne Maxwell, founder and director of Ujima, emphasized the growing importance of culturally grounded spaces, especially as Santa Clara County’s Black population declines. “African-centered services include an understanding of our history and lived experiences,” Maxwell said. “We create a space where people feel comfortable practicing their values — where they’re understood without having to explain.”
Ujima was established in 1991 following concerns from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors about the disproportionately high number of Black and Latino youth in juvenile detention. Maxwell, then a social worker, partnered with the South Bay Association of Black Social Workers to win a county contract focused on culturally informed counseling for African American youth.
Over the years, Ujima’s services have expanded. The center continues to support at-risk Black youth through life skills programs, field trips, workshops, and summer camps. It also provides crisis intervention, therapy, and case management — all designed through a cultural lens that addresses not just individual mental health, but broader systemic and racial challenges clients may face.
Maxwell noted that Black patients are often misdiagnosed with conditions like schizophrenia or paranoia, or are improperly medicated. Others, she said, are cut off from treatment due to false assumptions about drug-seeking behavior. Ujima’s approach is holistic and diagnostic. “We assess, we evaluate, and then we treat based on actual symptoms — not perceptions or assumptions,” she said.
Building Trust Through Cultural Competency
Roots Community Health Center, which expanded to San Jose in 2017 from Oakland, shares a similar philosophy. CEO Alma Burrell said cultural understanding and staff training are critical to building trust with Black patients. “First, you listen,” Burrell said. “Not just casually, but deeply — and respond from a place of shared cultural understanding.”
Burrell pointed to stark disparities in health outcomes as a call to action. Data from the California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that from 2017 to 2022, the infant mortality rate for Black babies in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties was 8.3 per 1,000 live births — more than double that of Latino (2.7), Asian (2.2), and white infants (2.0). Low birth weight and birth defects were the most common causes.
Maternal mortality figures were similarly alarming. Between 2018 and 2023, Black mothers died at a rate of 69 per 100,000 births — significantly higher than white (18), Latino (13), and Asian (8) mothers.
To combat these disparities, Roots offers midwifery services spanning prenatal to postpartum care. “They’re doing critical work,” said economist and community advocate Chuck Cantrell. “It’s basic healthcare, delivered with empathy and understanding — not a new concept, just one that’s finally being prioritized.”
Creating Community and Belonging
Beyond medical care, Ujima works to strengthen community connections in a county where Black residents make up just 2.9% of the nearly 2 million population.
Through its “Ubuntu Wellness” initiative — named after the Zulu concept meaning “I am because we are” — Ujima organizes regular community events: hiking trips, gardening sessions, natural hair care workshops, book clubs, dinners, parenting circles, and African drumming gatherings. Every two months, they host group dialogues to foster friendship, support, and affirmation.
Ubuntu program coordinator Menar Negash said these gatherings help fill a void often left unaddressed in traditional healthcare systems. “Community wellness is essential to personal well-being,” she said. “We become who we are through each other. It’s about coming together for the good of the community.”
As San Jose evolves, the work of Ujima and Roots remains a vital resource for Black residents — promoting health, healing, and heritage in equal measure.
Related Topics
