
Youth, Homelessness, Mental Health & Showing Up: A Conversation with Community Advocate Royce Wright
From The Healthy Project Podcast by Healthy Project Media
March 16, 2026 · 32 min · Episode 191
About this episode
Royce Wright discusses youth mental health, homelessness, and the importance of community support for at-risk youth.
Quad Cities advocate Royce Wright gets real about youth mental health, the homelessness crisis, and what it means to show up consistently for kids and communities that the system keeps overlooking. SHOW NOTES: Some of the most important public health work doesn't happen in clinics or conference rooms. It happens on street corners, in shelters, and in honest conversations with kids who just need somebody to show up. This week on The Healthy Project Podcast, Corey Dion Lewis sits down with his cousin Royce Wright — a community advocate based in the Quad Cities who has built a reputation for doing exactly that. Royce works with at-risk youth navigating mental health challenges, behavioral issues, and identity crises, while simultaneously raising his voice about the growing homelessness crisis in his community. His approach is rooted in lived experience, patience, and an unshakeable belief that trust is the foundation of everything. In this conversation, Royce shares what it's really like to work with kids who are struggling, why the family unit matters just as much as the child, and how a chance encounter while filming a TikTok video led to a viral moment — and a GoFundMe — aimed at…
People in this episode
Host: Corey Dion Lewis
Guest: Royce Wright
Topics covered
- youth mental health
- homelessness crisis
- community advocacy
- identity crisis
- adverse childhood trauma
Keywords
- youth
- mental health
- homelessness
- community advocate
- Quad Cities
- adverse childhood trauma
- identity crisis
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Quad Cities
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