By Kylee Harris

 At this year’s Empowering Youth Voices Summit, Speak Up, Stand Strong conference, over 300 students attended Danversport for a day filled with mental health advocacy. The focus for the day is for students to connect to one another and start a conversation that leads to better mental health advocacy and practice. The day consisted of multiple workshops with experts sharing their knowledge and experience. Students participated in each workshop with their peers in hopes to learn to become better mental health advocates and end the stigma. We also had multiple organizations tabling at the event, providing references and information to access mental health organizations and support for our students and their staff. And there was a panel for leaders in the academic world, including teachers and chaperones, which included information on how to best support their students day to day. 

   In one of the morning workshops, speaker Eric Mazzeo presented his mental health story of recovery through the justice system, facing incarceration, and turning his life around. While in the workshop, it was clear students were actively engaged and interested, and at lunchtime, some of them even said it was the highlight of their morning. A few students even said hearing such a powerful story is something they would carry with them every day. Telling recovery or come-back stories is an essential part of the work The Nan Project does, with statistics backing up the mental health benefits for adolescents. It was really great to see the students engage in that workshop particularly because we tell our stories to hundreds of students across MA, and sometimes we don’t get to see how it changes them or affects them, but with this workshop, I was able to get feedback from students. Most of the students highlighted that they appreciated hearing someone be honest and genuine. I thought this was an interesting, so I started asking some of the students to clarify what they meant. One student in particular said she felt like the workshop gave her “a breath of fresh air”. She also said having someone outside of their school share a story was powerful and hit closer to home because she felt they weren’t trying to “teach her something”. I think that’s one of the beauties of sharing come back or recovery stories, is that we aren’t here preaching, we are sharing experiences and whatever you choose to take from it, is yours. 

   A lot of students also expressed that they felt there wasn’t enough support in the school system. One student in particular said “we have 500 students who only have one guidance counselor, how is that counselor supposed to help 500 students?”. This is an ongoing issue in academic environments, as there is need for resources but not enough funding or access to these resources. These students deserve to be supported to no extent, and it’s proving frustrating to these students that they want to ask for help, but feel there’s no resolution. Every year at the Summit, I take students’ testimonials and focus on my professional goals for the year based on what their feedback is, and this concern is now one of my more important focuses moving forward. There aren’t enough resources for students and although it’s not a quick fix, we may be able to find and implement tools to help students and counselors with the mental and emotional workload. Hearing from multiple students at the Summit that this was a primary concern made me think about how heavy the weight each student carries with them everyday. They have so much on their plate but no one to help them carry that plate. That’s what’s hard about mental health advocacy, it seems like a simple fix. Hire more counselors. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for most academic institutions, leading to a vicious cycle of students who need help, and not enough help to go around. 

     One of our later workshops was an LGBTQ+  workshop that focused on being an ally and advocate. This was the workshop where I got the most positive feedback from students. One student in particular told me that in his household, LGBTQ people aren’t talked about much, so he was unaware of the struggles they are facing in today’s society. He then went on to say how he felt the workshop helped him gain tools to help a friend “come out” or support them in what they need. The student’s table then went on to discuss how to appropriately support LGBTQ people as an ally. The comfortability these kids showed with one another and the level of intelligence in their continued conversation exuded confidence in the next generation’s fight for advocacy. Another student told me they finally felt comfortable enough to start sharing that they are a part of the LGBTQ community, and having a workshop focused on positivity and community made them realize how loved and supported they were. It seems a lot of students found comfort and confidence by attending this workshop, and found ways to speak up and be an ally. Being in an environment of like minded young adults sharing their knowledge of how to be the best version of themselves for others is such an empowering feeling. This workshop in particular had such a warm powerful feeling to it, and the student’s testimonials highlighted now just how important these conversations are, but how needed they are.

   What I took away from the student’s feedback from this year’s summit was that they enjoyed the interactive workshops and gained newfound confidence in being a mental health advocate. Hearing about all the new tools these students have acquired just from attending one day’s worth of workshops gives me clear confidence for the future of mental health advocacy. A lot of students voiced that they are going off to college to pursue careers in psychology, social work, and communications. Having an event like this where so many different people can come together and share similar ideals is an essential step for mental health advocacy. Teaching students that it’s okay to speak up and speak out about mental health concerns paves the way to a healthier future. Having 300 students in one space all striving to bring attention to mental health, just goes to show how essential this education is. Continuing to spread the word about the importance of mental health advocacy and inspiring others to speak up is one of the most important goals of The Nan Project, and the Empowering Youth Voices Summit really showed light to what a bright future this field has.