KPU grad hosts mental health event on Sept. 9
“Resilience as it relates to mental health” will feature speeches, poetry, and music
KPU journalism graduate Sosa Eweka-Valentine is hosting mental health event "Resilience as it relates to mental health” on Sept. 9 to create a safe space for people to talk about mental health without judgement. (Submitted/Christina Tran)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University journalism graduate Sosa Eweka-Valentine is hosting “Resilience as it relates to mental health”’ in the Studio Theatre at the Surrey Arts Centre on Sept. 9 at 1:00 pm.
Eweka-Valentine came up with the idea for the event through her public speaking platform “Talks with Sosa” which started in 2018. The platform brings together speakers and experts to raise awareness about the stigma behind mental health.
“The idea for me was to create a safe place where people could talk about mental health without judgment,” Eweka-Valentine says.
The theme for the event is resilience which Eweka-Valentine decided on after realizing the COVID-19 pandemic was a time of resilience for many people.
“When it comes to mental health, we’ve all shown courage in dealing with the pandemic,” she says.
She wants the event to be a place where people can learn about mental health and ask for help. She also hopes to be able to help people struggling with mental health in the community and that attendees take home what they learn at the event to their families.
“It’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to seek help. That’s what I’m hoping people get from the event,” she says.
“I am on a mission to make people understand that a mental health diagnosis is just as important as a comorbidity.”
The event will also feature an Afro-beat violinist and food.
Eweka-Valentine says she has been lucky to receive funding from the Lookout Housing + Health Society, a non-profit organization that provides housing and other support services to people with little or no income.
Eweka-Valentine, a member of Toastmasters International, a non-profit public speaking platform, reached out to people to speak at the event through the organization as well as social media.
One of the people performing at the event is Palesa Koitsioe, a consultant, life coach, and poet. They help people recognize their values and live them out. Their motto is “to liberate folks on purpose” through value alignment.
They will present poems about their own struggles and triumphs with resilience and mental health.
“Something that held my mental health together [was] finding the joy and beauty, even in the chaos, even in the tough times, and making sure to balance, not disregarding the tough times, but allowing myself to keep the hope alive,” Koitsioe says.
Koitsioe hopes people leave feeling inspired to keep pushing through their work and know that life is worth living, even in a chaotic state. They say their work fulfills them as it gives them the opportunity to serve other people.
“[Through these events] folks realize the level of representation there is in terms of just how much everyone is going through their own trials and triumphs.”
They say they look forward to hearing other people’s perspective on resilience and mental health at the panel discussion since conversations like this haven’t always happened openly for people in the Black community.
“My goal for the event is for people to understand the meaning behind mental health, mental illness, mental crisis, and be able to not associate mental health with stigma,” Eweka-Valentine says.
For more information on the event and how to attend, visit https://2cm.es/su1u.
