Hold Your Crown was founded by the Seattle based, Black, indigenous People of Color (“BIPOC”) rock band King Youngblood whose members all either have a direct experience with mental illness or have a family member who is impacted. During a band meeting in 2018, they unanimously identified youth mental health as an issue they wanted to support. From that meeting, the nonprofit Hold Your Crown was created and its members have presented to over six hundred high school and college classes in over ten counties on the west coast, many of which were rural or with a large underserved population.

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The Hold Your Crown project aims to spread a message of hope and solidarity through their music as well as peer-to-peer speaking engagements in schools, video messages shared through social media, press releases focused on their core message, written materials and merchandise embracing the Hold Your Crown message. All of the members have been trained by NAMI’s End the Silence Programmers and the Hold Your Crown project includes special emphasis to address de-stigmatization within communities of color and immigrant populations.