Mental Health Awareness Organization Delivers Important Wellbeing Messaging to Students
Jack.org gives powerful talk to urge students to be mental care aware
“We have ‘the sex talk’ with our kids, so why aren’t we having ‘the mental health talk’ too?” This poignant question was posed to the students, faculty and staff who packed the front atrium at Trent University Durham – GTA on March 7 to listen to a Jack Talk, a travelling organization that brings young speakers into schools to fight stigma and spread positive mental health messaging.
The Jack Talks program uses contact-based education and peer-to-peer outreach to teach students across Canada about mental health needs and care. Using a professionally developed curriculum, the program provides young speakers to help audiences to understand mental health and how to look out for each other and themselves. They also encourage and inspire audiences to keep the conversation going with concrete steps to create lasting change in their communities.
“I think what made the event so special was that the speakers were our age and shared personal experiences, which made them very relatable,” explained Don-Pierre, a first-year Business Administration student who also co-organized the event. “I think that made the talk immensely impactful and resonated with a lot of people.”
The speakers from Jack.org urged students to use the resources available to them, including social media, to start the conversation about mental health. “Talking doesn’t make us weak, it makes us resilient,” advised one of the speakers, who was born in Ukraine and lived in an orphanage until the age of three, when he was adopted, and moved to Toronto.
“Seeing so many students at the Jack Talk event was uplifting and exciting,” noted Candice Stoliker, a counsellor at Trent Durham. “Their willingness to listen demonstrates our student body’s desire for a university community that is supportive, and free of mental health stigma.”
Jack.org is the only national network of young leaders transforming the way society thinks about mental health. Initiatives and programs are designed for young people, by young people, with an aim to end the mental health stigma.