On November 2nd, 2019 the City of Salem hosted the 11th annual ILEAD Youth Summit for high school students in Marion County. Held at North Salem High School and later the Boys and Girls’ Club’s Wipper Teen Center, the conference discussed the importance of breaking the stigma around mental health. The event ran from 9am to 9pm and included workshops and activities to promote teen advocacy, leadership development, and effective communication. “ILEAD has the same goals every year of further developing young leaders, providing tools to become advocates, improving on communication skills to be more effective, gaining hearts of empathy and service, increasing healthy lifestyle decision-making, and connecting teens to like minded peers” said Event Director Laurie Shaw-Casarez.
“It was a great experience to be able to talk about mental health and connect with other youth who are also involved in the movement,” Eddy-Binford Ross ‘21 said.* “I was asked to speak on a student panel at the conference and I talked about the Live-to-Tell non-profit that I am apart of and our work in ensuring that student voices are heard within our schools” Binford-Ross said.
From educational panels to informative workshops, the summit aimed to equip and empower youth with tools to be more vocal about mental health.
“I chose to attend the conference because of its great purpose, which was to shed light on the stigmatized topic of mental health” Eric Martz ‘20 said.
This year’s slogan for the conference was “break the stigma” to encourage teens to become more confident discussing mental health:
“Mental health has had such a taboo stigma attached to it, why not shed light on mental health, build an understanding of what it is and isn’t, share out resources and make them accessible to everyone so we can all create a healthier community” Shaw-Casarez said. “By validating these struggles and raising these difficult conversations, it fosters a more inclusive and safe environment that encourages students to reach out for help,” Martz said.
The ILEAD Youth Summit addressed the many ways in which students can discuss mental health with others. “We provide resources or user-friendly action steps that can be practiced; maybe it’s a 3-step breathing technique to help de-stress or a 24-hour crisis hotline to share with a friend, or maybe it’s sign-ups for opportunities to serve in the community or to join an after school club” Shaw-Casarez said.
To become more involved in teen advocacy and awareness, “Students can join Saxon Strong Club, advocate in their local legislature, and set up meetings with school board members,” Binford-Ross said.
*Note: Eddy Binford-Ross is the editor of the Clypian.
