I’m really honored that I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the 4th annual Broward County Mental Health Summit. I didn’t know that the Boca Observer wrote about the event, but it’s nice of them. Thank you to the Boca Observer for publicizing it: https://bocaratonobserver.com/community/around-town/bouncing-back-together/
The Summit is presented by the Sheriff’s Foundation of Broward County, Memorial Healthcare System, and UKG, and brings together the mental health providers from county, state and federal government, private practice, non-profits, and academia to discuss and examine the current issues relating to mental health in Broward County. If you watched, you probably took away concrete data, information tools, and a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with mental health issues.
The Summit was held during National Suicide Prevention month and on the tails of Covid, so this year’s theme was both timely and relevant. The theme was Bouncing Back Together: Wellness, Empowerment, Resilience, and Connection. After having been home from school for a year, and starting to get back to seeing people in-person, this theme is right on point for a lot of us who felt stressed or overwhelmed by the past year. And speaking from a teen’s perspective, it’s so important to raise awareness so people know that they are not alone. Everyone gets sad or anxious sometimes, and I’m glad that I have the opportunity to continue the conversation and help end the stigma.
Visit http://browardmentalhealthsummit.com/ to learn more information about this free event which will be streamed live on September 9th 2021.
I also want to thank the amazing Yolanda-Cash Jackson for agreeing to introduce me. That means so much to me because we both had the same mentor, my Grandpa Alan.
To read about how the speech went and my thoughts about it: https://wufshanti.com/2021/09/14/mentalhealthkeynotespeech/