Teen Mental Health Collaborative Holds Quarterly Meeting at JCC

On May 31, the Teen Mental Health Collaborative held its quarterly meeting at the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh, providing an opportunity for community-based organizations to network and prioritizes opportunities for staff skills development in mental health and wellness to improve teen mental health and wellness.

Twenty-one individuals from 11 youth-serving organizations participated.

During the meeting Rabbi Ron Symons, senior director of Jewish life at the Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh provided an overview of the center's mission and the 21 Days of Kindness Campaign. Dr. Maria Carson, director of Jewish Education and Arts at the JCC, also provided a presentation about its Second Floor Wellness Room and teen programming.

A discussion was held among participants about promoting ownership and responsibility for maintaining safe teen spaces; strategies used by organizations represented at the meeting to prevent and respond to substance use among teens accessing their spaces and programs; and space for discussion and to share organizational highlights and summer and fall plans.

Following lunch, Emery Malachowski, outreach coordinator at 10.27 Healing Partnership provided a program overview and philosophy of the organization which was established to help those directly and indirectly affected by the October 27, 2018 synagogue mass shooting. The organization offers resources for all those seeking help and healing from trauma. This discussion was followed by facilitation of a drum circle with Stephanie Miller, certified music practitioner from Music for Life of Pittsburgh, LLC. Stephanie has been hosting drop-in drum circles once a month in collaboration with the 10.27 Healing Partnership. Collaborative members experienced how this art form can be used for healing and building community through music.

The Collaborative also offered "The Kaleidoscope of Grief: Loss in Many Forms," a virtual grief and loss training workshop to its members earlier in May. The workshop expanded the view of grief to include death loss as well as the more ambiguous non-death losses that sometimes go unnoticed as sources of grief. The workshop, facilitated by The Highmark Caring Place, provided participants with a greater understanding of the ways that children experience grief throughout their development, the principles of grief-informed practice, and tools to support children on their grief journey.