Friendship Bench came to New York City in 2017 as one of the earliest adaptations of the Zimbabwe Friendship Bench model outside Africa. Introduced as part of ThriveNYC, the city’s mental health initiative, the program was championed by then NYC Commissioner of Health Dr. Mary Bassett and developed under the leadership of Dr. Gary Belkin and Takeesha White. For us, New York represented a powerful South-North knowledge and experience transfer. The model developed in Zimbabwe, bringing mental health support into everyday community spaces through trained community members—was adapted to the realities of one of the world’s largest and most diverse cities. The Friendship Bench program in NYC worked with trained peer workers who brought their own lived experience of mental health challenges. The benches created a place where people could stop, talk, be heard and connect with support.

 

The first benches were established in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem, with the model also taken into parks, churches, food pantries, festivals and other community spaces. Within its first year, approximately 30,000 people visited Friendship Benches in New York, and approximately 60,000 visits were recorded between 2017 and 2018.