Grace Hewitt and Emily Lewis
9 months ago
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The second annual Black Men’s Mental Health Conference was held on Saturday, April 13.
Returning for its second year, the Black Men’s Mental Health Conference aims to address mental health needs of Black men in the Dayton community.New task force addresses mental health in Ohio jails
The event offered a panel of experts to discuss mental health, along with keynote speaker Eric Kellum and guest speaker Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr.
In addition, the conference offered resources, education and support to attendees. The goal of the conference is to extend resources and information to community members struggling with mental health and domestic violence issues.
Over 150 people attended the event, and justUs Foundation founder Camillia Harris says that sense of community is everything.
“We just come together today just to have a conversation, just to have a dialogue, just to hear other individuals speak about what we could be or have experienced before,” said Harris.
Organizers say its important as a community to come together and know that it’s okay to not be okay and seek help and share your experiences with others.
“We have a lot of individuals, no matter the gender, no matter the race, that are experiencing and dying in silence. And I think as a community, we have to come together and we have to witness and be a part of making sure that we break the cycles and and break the stigmas that are attached to individuals seeking help,” said Harris.
Besides the event discussing mental health, another key component focused on domestic violence.
“Our connection to this mental health thing is domestic violence, where we see a lot of times the perpetrators of domestic violence do have some mental health issues. So our thing is to try to bring a solution to stopping the perpetual cycle of domestic violence,” said Diona Clark, co-founder.
Organizers say they will continue to host this event every year, as they strive to build a better community.
“To put something like this in place for our African-American men, where they can be a better stable in the community, be able to be a better man for their families, be better men in pillars again, in the community like this means everything,” said Clark.
The conference was held at the Sinclair Conference Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and was organized by justUs, MH Foundation and LivOutLoud, ENT.