Resilience and Healing: Supporting the Mental Health of Racialized Children

Parents for Diversity is hosting a free, virtual panel discussion on mental health for parents and guardians of racialized children.

In this 1.5 hour panel discussion, parents and guardians of racialized students will learn about the various ways children and youth experience racism, how discrimination and racism can impact their experience in school and the impact on mental health. Panelists will examine social constructs and psychological concepts to help parents better understand and support the mental health of their children.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, share stories and provide peer support to others within a Safe and Brave Space model.

Following the session, participants will have a deeper understanding of how to identify mental health challenges, examine social constructs and psychological impacts, support children to better manage mental health, support self-concepts to achieve mental health and well-being; and strategies to decrease stigma.

We are fortunate to have dynamic mental health practitioners as panelists for this session with vast experiences and we believe that they will bring insightful thoughts and take-aways for participants.

This session will take place in a webinar format. Participants are invited to complete a pre-webinar survey to identify any questions they would like to ask panelists.

This webinar is intended for parents and guardians of racialized students. Questions and issues the panel will address will be specific to an audience of parents and guardians. While this webinar is for parents and guardians, it is open to social workers, community organizations, educators and administrators, and anyone interested in learning approaches to support the mental health and resilience of racialized students.

Panelists

Wayne Ng

Wayne has been a social worker for more than thirty years. As a graduate of Ryerson and Carleton, he launched his career in Toronto working in child welfare, corrections, and mental health. He was able to combine his passions of social work and travel and did a child welfare stint in Australia. He has been with the Ottawa Catholic School Board for over twenty years, and once again combined passions– working with children and writing. His latest novels draw from the courageous and heroic lives of families he has been fortunate to work with. As one of the few vocal racialized individuals in mainstream organizations wherever he worked, he understands the unique mental health challenges of staff as well as consumers, in particular children and youth. He brings critical analysis and the necessary emotional resilience to foster individual and institutional change.

Meghan Stewart-Wills

Meghan is a certified L2 Unified Mindfulness, Mindfulness Coach, located in Ottawa, Canada on unceded and un-surrendered Algonquin territory. Identifying as she/her, Meghan is a multi-racial, Black Woman with a Jamaican heritage. Meghan includes over 15 years of experience within human resources, hospitality and philanthropy into all her projects and offerings. Her recent role in 2020 as Chair of Parents for Diversity offered relevant knowledge beyond her lived experiences of the education system and the mental health challenges of students, specifically Afro-Caribbean Black and Indigenous identifying, as well as educators. In March of 2020, Meghan launched the Mindful Educator Program as a part of the New Teacher Induction Program for the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Featured in CBC as one of 10 women in the Ottawa area building community by supporting and promoting wellness, Meghan is passionate about inclusive wellness and mental health support because of her own continued lived experiences.

E. L. Adams

E. L. was born and raised in Charlotte, NC with his older sister, by Everett Sr. and Sandra Adams. After graduating from West Charlotte High School to attend Phillips Academy-Andover Preparatory School in Andover, MA. E. L. then went on to study at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia where he studied psychology and played on the 2 time national championship basketball team. After graduating university, E. L. returned to the United States and graduated from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee with a master’s degree in Educational and Counseling Psychology.