May 02 Building Bridges to Mental Wellness
“Stigma used to be one of our biggest issues,” explained Julius Boatwright, Founding CEO of Steel Smiling. “We still have a stigma issue, but we’ve made great progress in the past few years. It’s a topic of rappers and TikTok videos. It’s in our community conversations. What we haven’t yet been able to do is connect everyone who needs mental health support with services.”
Steel Smiling bridges the gap between Black people in Allegheny County and mental health support through education, advocacy and awareness.
Since launching in 2015, Steel Smiling serves the community by hosting free individual and group street therapy conversations with a licensed mental health practitioner, providing community members, mental health practitioners, high school and college students with psycho-education, educating community members, leaders and educators during Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid Training, and referring community members to mental health care providers and practitioners.
Steel Smiling is working to change that. Staunton Farm Foundation is as proud to power Steel Smiling’s work today as we were when we were one of their first funders and partners.
