City of Newburgh residents are throwing an event in September to highlight mental health in Black and brown communities.
According to the Office of Mental Health, one in three African Americans who need mental health help actually receives it. And in 2017 African American female high school students were 70% more likely to attempt suicide than compared to white female classmates.
One community is promoting an event that hopes to shine a light on the importance of self-love within Black and brown minority communities.
Remadee Love and her team are filming a presentation for the authentic self-esteem event. Love is a musician and a certified mindset coach and she’s getting ready to perform about a topic that hits close to home- mental health struggles.
“I grew up on welfare,” Love said. “I was on food stamps my father was incarcerated for my entire life. And so when you grow up in certain circumstances it greatly affects your self-esteem and the way that you view yourself and the way that you view yourself and your level of self-esteem greatly impacts what you think that you're even capable of achieving in life and so for me, it's very important to have this message at this event about self-esteem so that people can start realizing there's so much greater than their current surroundings.”
Born and raised in Newburgh, Love worked as a teacher for years. She had the opportunity to travel around the world for a couple months and when she returned home, she noticed some changes.
“I saw that there are a lot of new buildings and a lot of new businesses, but there are still a lot of people who are stuck in certain cycles,” Love said. “And I feel like until we start focusing on the mental health of the citizens and still, we until we start focusing on how we can shift people's mindsets, a lot of people will remain in the same cycles and these new wonderful buildings are not really going to mean much if people don't have peace within themselves.”
Love is certified in NLP, which stands for neurolinguistic programming.
According to Mental Health America, 10.3 % of African American youth reported having a mental health episode, while 6.4% in Latinx/Hispanic youth reported having a mental health episode.
“Teach people how to become aware of certain thought patterns, certain thought programs that have been really running in the back of their minds for a very long time and bringing that to their awareness so they can let it go and start implementing new thought patterns that are going to help them become the greatest versions of themselves,” Love said.
Keisha Hall, a co-creator of the upcoming event, also shares a similar mission to that of Loves.
“I like to uplift i like to motivate and allow people to really, like dive into themselves and what their purpose is, and have the confidence and faith to walk towards that purpose,” Hall said. “Because essentially, it's all about how we feel about ourselves, our capabilities and our confidence in ourselves in order for us to pursue our purpose in our life.”
It’s a family-friendly event that can bring more awareness, and provide resources about mental health support to the Black and brown minority communities. Hall also believes it helps our youth to see more positivity in their own backyard.
“Something like this is very important for the kids to see to really hone in on their power instead of being like, ‘Well, let me follow this trend,’” Hall said. “Let me follow that trend.”
The event will take place on Sunday, Sept. 17 at 245 Liberty Street in the city of Newburgh. One hundred percent of the ticket sales will be donated to Newburgh Performing Arts Academy, which is an organization for the youth in Newburgh to help with the art programs.