On May 2nd, The Up Center’s Team Up Mentoring Program hosted its 3rd Annual Mental Health Night, Mentors, youth, and families were invited to participate in discussions around mental health and working to dispel stigma, recognize mental health symptoms, learn positive coping mechanisms, and connect with community resources.
This years event was supported by Aramark and Social Current, long-standing supporters of Team Up. Being a community-funded program, we depend on sponsors like Aramark and Social Current to enable us to offer adolescents in our community free mentoring services. Team Up was awarded the 2024 Aramark Day of Caring Grant, which included self-care kits for each youth in attendance that were aimed to encourage healthy mental health habits.
During this event, everyone engaged in healthy dialogue and supported one another while discussing difficult topics. One young individual was brave enough to share their story with others, addressing their personal challenges with bullying, which had prompted suicidal ideation. By the end of the night, that individual was able to identify that not everyone is your friend but there are supportive adults that care too…and those adults can be the great people who work at The Up Center and Team Up mentors.
“I hope this made you smile…you never know the lives you touch just by showing up and doing the work,” said Team Up Program Manager, Jessica Simmons. “Thanks to our friends at Aramark, we were able to provide our mentees with self-care kits and give these youth a safe space to talk about mental health.”
