Dozens of Pensacola teens were in attendance for the inaugural Youth Mental Health Summit on Friday where speakers, community resource groups and volunteers came together to start the mental health conversation early.
The event was held by Storytelling Solutions of America at the Gateway Church of Christ and featured information stands, keynote speakers and plenty of food for the kids throughout the day.
One of those keynote speakers including local bestselling author and founder of Speaks 2 Inspire, Abraham Sculley, who’s collaborated with multiple organizations to create safe spaces for conversations about mental health.
Sculley is a University of West Florida alumni and is now on their College of Health’s advisory board, but during his studies he experienced a severe battle with depression that later led him to pursue the field of psychology and work to kickstart mental health conversations by sharing his story with audiences across the country.
“I changed my major and became very fascinated with psychology and how the mind works,” Sculley told the News Journal Friday, explaining that introducing youth to good mental health concepts early is vital to mitigate mental health struggles later on.
“It’s important because we all go through life, we all go through challenges and the more that we ignore the fact that’s true, the less likely we are to develop tools to navigate when we go through life,” he said.
“If we’re going to go through life regardless, let’s learn the tools early so that when it happens we can navigate successfully. That can start as young as middle school, we don’t have to wait until high school,” he continued.
Kids were able to explore multiple educational and interactive mental health-related activities at the event, then congregate amongst themselves to discuss what they were learning and were interested in.
One of them, Kianna Lover, told the News Journal that her favorite part of the day was a scavenger hunt she participated in with two friends she’d known prior to the event. For another one of the children in attendance, forming new bonds was the best part of her day.
“This is my first time meeting all of them,” Ryleigh Wilson said about Lover’s group.
During the interview the newly formed group of best friends couldn’t stop smiling and laughing with one another, which was the common theme among the event’s attendants.
Along with mental health resources, there were also social organizations providing assistance with everyday problems that might impact things like children's self-esteem.
Project Formal, also known as 4EVR DEZ, is a community-based initiative that provides dresses for local students who aren’t able to buy or find one on their own. Whether they’re donated, purchased or sewn up to be brand new, the organization gives the dresses away for free with no strings attached to the donation.
They have a boutique experience once a year, where students get matched with an ambassador from the organization and then get to choose their dress, shoes, purse and jewelry with tailors on site. The students at the summit were able to learn more about their services and sign up during the event.
“We want to help students who have financial barriers overcome that,” said one of Project Formal’s members Sophie Odom. “I see girl’s faces light up because they can’t afford dresses and now they have the opportunity to own their first ever dress.”
One of the resource groups in attendance was Nonie’s Place, a grief resource and counseling center that opened in August last year and provides their counseling services for free to local families. Children from 6 to 18 can participate in group counseling, camps or individual sessions on trauma and/or loss with one of their clinical counselors.
The organization's table had “mood boxes” where many of the youth wrote down their feelings and thoughts before adding them into the box that matched the emotion they were feeling.
Jennifer Holler is the executive and clinical director of Nonie’s Place, which is a part of Covenant Care, and told the News Journal that they came into existence to expand their mental health services to a larger community.
“We have a free-standing house where families can come, it’s a counseling center that doesn’t feel like a doctor’s office. It’s very kid-centric so when the kids come in they don’t feel like it’s a clinical kind of place, it feels very homey,” Holler said. “Unfortunately our kids experience loss at a very young age and it’s a difficult thing for a lot of adults to talk about for themselves, so it’s really hard then to talk about it with kids.”
Covenant Care has spent nearly four decades providing clinical therapy and counseling to children experiencing grief and loss.
“I think we can all learn how to better express ourselves, communicate, socialize and talk. I think if we can learn at a young age that it’s okay to talk about and share our feelings that will help as we grow up into teenagers and young adults,” she continued. “When you keep that stuff inside and repressed it can be very dangerous.”
For more information about the event visit ssasummit.org.
Most Popular
Comments / 0