Stories

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Our mental health family summit and resource fair was a huge success! We had over 200 guests join us at Miami Dade College, North Campus to address the crisis of child and teen suicides.

This impactful event brought the community together to offer valuable resources, workshops and supportive activities to normalize conversation around serious mental health topics. Through meaningful discussions, sound therapy, personal anecdotes, breakout sessions, and mindfulness exercises, we created a safe space for learning, connection, and hope.

Our Resource garden was filled with incredible local community organizations including:

Serenity Scents, School Pantry Coalition, Cigna, DRT Foundation, Cayuga Centers,5000 Role Models, Suited for Success, F-Fentanyl, Westcare the Village South, Equalpath Solutions, Jewish Community Services, Riders Robotics, Concerned African Women, SEO Scholars Miami, Center for Equitable Access and Treatment of Trauma, Inc., Healthy Families Program, MADD, Big Brothers Big Sisters Miami, NAMI Miami Dade, with free giveaways from Fly Supply. (Please see these websites for more infomation at the bottom of this article)

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The event was brought to life by MC Jawan Strader, Emmy Award Winning Journalist from NBC 6.

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We kicked off programming with a discussion on child & teen depression with Dr. Juandalyn Peters and Dr. Delvena Thomas.

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Because of our generous event sponsorships we were able to give back to the community further with grants to The Brain Love Foundation to help fund patient co-pays for mental health treatment, and to C.A.L.M. for Delvin Roger's work in the community to support our youth.

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Jawan Strader, Shelly-Ann King, Sylvester King Jr., Dr. Delvena Thomas

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Jawan Strader, Sylvester King Jr., Delvin Rogers, Shelly-Ann King

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We hosted four different breakout sessions for the children and teens including: Conflict Resolution, Social Media Addiction, Nutrition, and Self-Esteem. All key components to building a strong mental health foundation.

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We also presented a teen's panel hosted by Dr. Deborah Jones-Allen, Udonis Haslem Foundation's Mental Health Community Liaison featuring our two BDJ40 Scholarship winners: Gray Cesena and DaJ'la Jones as well as Storm Berbesi.

These three teens offered insight into normalizing conversations around mental health sharing personal stories and advice to both parents, kids and teens in the audience. They discussed how to deal with mental health struggles, how to help your kids manage their mental health, and how important it is to not shy away from these important conversations at home. They brought immense value to the event's programming offering new perspectives, real life experience, and most importantly hope for everyone in attendance.

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Dr. Deborah Jones-Allen, Gray Cesena, Storm Berbesi, DaJ'la Jones

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John Acosta and Dr. Yamileth Fisher joined us for Family Constellations, a series of mindfulness activities and exercises. Family constellation therapy is a therapeutic approach that helps clients understand and resolve family dynamics and conflicts.

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We were also grateful to have received an Award of Recognition from North Miami Beach Commissioner Daniela Jean for both The Udonis Haslem Foundation and The DRT Brain Love Foundation.

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A special thank you to the DRT Brain Love Foundation and Dr. Delvena Thomas for co-presenting this event and to Miami Dade College, North Campus for hosting us. An additional thank you to our main sponsors: Cigna and UKG; along with our In-Kind Sponsors: Pure Water Factory, Grace Foods, and Charlston's Island Delacacies.

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