How low-barrier treatment, culture-rooted care help Karen teens push back against opioids

This story about support programs for Karen teens in St. Paul was produced collaboratively by MinnPost and MindSite News, the nation’s only newsroom focused solely on mental health. Sign up for their newsletters here.

It’s a warm Wednesday afternoon in September, and teens and their young-adult mentors are filing into The Urban Village, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based nonprofit that supports young people in the city’s Karen and Karenni refugee communities. Everyone is animated, greeting each other excitedly at this first weekly meeting of the new school year. 

D, a fashionably-dressed young man wearing loose, low-slung jeans and a bright shirt, steps into the light-filled space. He greets friends and sizes up the action before Carly Roepke,...