NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The City of Norfolk Community Services Board and the ORF Project will host a Community Conversation: “Surviving through mental health.”
The ORF Project is a newly formed non-profit organization in Norfolk founded in July 2023.
“We focus on mental health, youth and adult education and prevention tools to help them combat transgenerational trauma. Our goal is to bridge the gap in Black mental health,” said Shawnice Hernandez, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the ORF Project.
The free event takes place on Thursday, July 11 from 5:00pm to 9:00pm at the Historic Attucks Theatre, 1010 Church Street in Norfolk.
The talk will include a professional panel discussion with local experts:
- Krystal Vaughan, Ph.D., trauma therapist and owner of Core Therapeutic Services
- Kamron Blue LCSW, CHKD Secure Futures Program Coordinator
- Tonya Shell, Ph.D., Program Director NSU Campus Prevention and Response Program
- Kristie Norwood, Ph.D., Director of the Student Counseling Center at Hampton University
“We’re trying to keep it targeted around young people and how mental health plays out in our community,” Hernandez said. “This is generational at this point… this is nothing new. Community gun violence focuses on mental health. Poverty focuses on mental health. Homelessness focuses on mental health… The lack of education that our students are not receiving in schools is focused on mental health. The list goes on and on.”
The community conversations come as June concludes Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, followed by Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July.
“Men are always seen as being strong and unemotional when needed. This helps them navigate. It helps everyone navigate life a lot easier,” Hernandez said. “They’re in a silent crisis because they don’t have the words to deal with their emotions in order to reach out and get help.”
She adds, “We’re hurt, we’re crying in ways we know how to cry, and a lot of times it’s anger. I feel like we as a minority, especially in the black community, come across as angry, aggressive and loud when it’s really just us living with a lot of pent up emotions that we just don’t know how to express and communicate. .”
Counselor Danica Royster, a mental health awareness advocate, has been open about her personal mental health journey. Royster helped create this event based on her passion for the community to have access to mental health resources and to help parents (or guardians) provide a space for youth to connect.
Royster tells WAVY.com that it was inspired by the need for access to resources and an effort to dismantle the taboo on mental health in the black community. She also offers an opportunity to use her platform to encourage people not to feel like their diagnosis determines their destiny.
To register for the event visit Survivors through mental health tickets.
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