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March 2009 - Posts

  • Healing Starts With Us @ National Action Network's 11th Annual Convention

    Saturday, 4 April 2009, 12 noon - 2 pm

    "Sharing Ourselves...Healing Starts With Us" -- An upfront and personal look at what depression looks like, sounds like and feels like in our communities across the country -- from the voices of people you know. Moderated by Terrie M. Williams, Mental Health Advocate and author of Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting.


    Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers
    811 7th Avenue @ 53rd Street
    New York, NY 10019
    212.581.1000

    Posted Mar 23 2009, 03:17 AM by admin with 2 comment(s)

  • Healing Starts With Us @ Yonkers Riverfront Library

    Wednesday 25 March 2009, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

    In an effort to promote mental wellness in the community, Council Member Patricia McDow is hosting a screening of the Healing Starts With Us: “The Open Book”  documentary on Wednesday, 25 March 2009, at Yonkers Public Library-Riverfront Branch, located at 1 Larkin Center, from 5:30–7:30 pm. Autographed copies of the ground-breaking book, Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting by Terrie M. Williams will be for sale. The event is open to the public in honor of Women’s History Month. 

    Healing Starts With Us (HSWU) “The Open Book” explores the symptoms of depression, its impact on Black American lifestyles and encourages dialogue to break the silence of and destigmatize the illness in the Black community. Narrated by political and social activist Jeff Johnson, poignant remarks and appearances from other notables include: Mo’Nique, Ruby Dee, John Amos, Susan L. Taylor, Geoffrey Canada, Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, Jamie Hector, Cake Man Raven, Terry McMillan, and The Rev. Al Sharpton.

    The screening is followed by a transformative open discussion led by Terrie Williams who shares her personal debilitating battle with depression. Terrie illuminates the signs and symptoms to recognize depression. This approach creates a unique interactive environment that allows individuals to share their personal stories of despair—whether or not they were ever diagnosed with depression. The outpouring of pent up emotions promotes an unexpected sense of kinship and relief about not being alone, placing individuals at the threshold of the healing process. 

    An initiative of The Stay Strong Foundation, Healing Starts With Us is an immensely courageous and compelling campaign that addresses the pervasiveness of clinical depression in the Black American community and promotes mental wellness. The campaign teaches what depression looks, sounds and feels like, and offers a referral service to encourage and connect those ready to start the healing process with mental health professionals and facilities. HSWU is a guiding light through a tunnel of learned silence (about emotional distress) that dates back to slavery. One of its goals is to reach and teach 1 million people about its services through online pledging at Healing Starts With Us.net.

    “When I attended the premier of “The Open Book” on Broadway on January 15th, I immediately identified the value of it being shown in Yonkers, so I pledged,” says Councilmember Patricia McDow. So many people in pain, walking around like time bombs. It was a group therapy experience that I never witnessed before.  The added touch of having mental health therapists on hand was outstanding and completes the cycle.” 

    Terrie Williams is a consummate mentor, even through her personal pain. She and business partner, Xavier Artis, launched the HSWU Campaign in March 2008 on the heels of the release of her book, Black Pain. The book identifies emotional pain—which uniquely and profoundly affects the Black experience—as the root of lashing out through desperate acts of crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating and shopping, gambling, and sex. Few realize these destructive acts are symptoms of our inner sorrow. 

    "Depression" is a catchword in the mainstream media, but among Black Americans, it might as well be “the D-word”—the shameful thing nobody talks about, even as it’s killing them. But Terrie is not afraid to talk about what depression is doing to the Black community— she’s determined to get everyone talking about it, and she will not rest until people can freely speak their pain without shame, and start healing. 

    HSWU has become a clarion call across the nation that says, “Yes we can” end the stigma of depression in our community; that we don't have to repeat and relive the painful history of our past.  We are nothing without our emotional and mental wellness. “Depression is not a crime, it’s an illness,” says Williams. 

    As a result of its highly effective initiative, The Stay Strong Foundation recently formed a collaboration with The Ad Council—creators of the UNCF memorable campaign, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”—and the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The theme of the joint campaign is “Share Oursevles…Healing Starts With Us.”  

     

    Posted Mar 22 2009, 11:27 PM by admin with no comments
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