NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The City of Norfolk Community Services Board and Project ORF will be hosting a community conversation. “Survival through Mental Health”
Project ORF is a new non-profit organization founded in July 2023 in Norfolk.
“We’re focused on youth and adult mental health, education, and prevention tools to combat intergenerational trauma. Our goal is to close the mental health gap for Black people,” said Shawnice Hernandez, executive director and co-founder of Project ORF.
This free event will be held on Thursday, July 11th from 5pm to 9pm at the Historic Attucks Theatre, 1010 Church Street in Norfolk.
The conversation will include an expert panel discussion with local experts.
- Dr. Crystal Vaughn, Trauma Therapist and Owner of Cornerstone Therapeutic Services
- Kamron Blue, LCSW, CHKD Safer Futures Program Coordinator
- Tonya Shell, PhD, program director, NSU Campus Prevention and Response Program
- Dr. Christy Norwood, Director of the Student Counseling Center at Hampton University
“We’re trying to focus on our youth and how mental health manifests in our community,” Hernandez said. “This is a generational issue at this point… This is not new. Gun violence in our community centers around mental health. Poverty centers around mental health. Homelessness centers around mental health… The lack of education that students are not receiving in school centers around mental health. The list goes on and on.”
The community conversation comes as Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month concludes in June and continues with Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July.
“Men are always projected as the strong, emotionless ones, when really they should have feelings, and it helps them navigate their way, it helps everybody navigate life a lot easier,” Hernandez says. “They’re in a silent crisis because they can’t put their feelings into words to ask for and receive help.”
She added: “We are suffering and we are screaming the way we need to scream, and a lot of times that is anger. I feel like as a minority, especially in the black community, we are perceived as angry and aggressive and loud, but it’s really just us living with a lot of emotions that we don’t know how to express or communicate.”
City Council Member Danica Royster, a mental health awareness activist who has spoken openly about her own mental health journey, helped organize this event driven by her passion for helping the community access mental health resources and empowering parents (or guardians) to provide a space for young people to socialize.
Royster tells WAVY.com that this was born out of an effort to break down the taboo around mental health in the Black community and a need for access to resources, but also an opportunity to use her platform to encourage people not to feel like a diagnosis determines their fate.
To register for an event Surviving a Mental Health Ticket.
