Proviso East | Mental Health Kit Giveaway

Friends! We have finally gotten into another Proviso school! We are continuously working toward our goal of giving away kits to every student in Proviso District 209. Jasmine and Maya have been working hard to educate our youth on the importance of mental health and self-confidence. To honor that, we held an affirmations board. We had Proviso East students write on our affirmation sticky notes “I am” statements that reflected their authentic selves. We had statements like “I am loved” and “I am destined for success”. Better yet, our kits come with sticky notes in them, so we are hopeful they continue to tell themselves positive affirmations

By the end of our time, 149 East students had received a kit! Thank you to Proviso East for believing in our purpose and wanting to share it with the students. Also, thank you to our supporters, donors, and sponsors who allow us to work toward our goal of 5000 kits given away.

Group Therapy | Session 2

Greetings friends! Sarah of Yo Soy Ella held another impactful group therapy session with some youth of Proviso. In this session, Sarah led a conversation about expectations. Expectations could be in relation to ourselves, society, family, school, and more. Yet, before that, Sarah did her weekly check-ins to see how the last session may have brought on reflections. Continuing on, Sarah started the conversation by asking what expectations the youth were feeling more recently. Toward the end of the session, Sarah asked our youth how can we, as adults, limit these expectations.

Sarah always does an amazing job of connecting with our youth and creating a safe space. If you know a young adult who may be interested in group therapy, have them RSVP. Our next session is Saturday, February 11th from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. See you soon!

PMSA | Mental Health Kit Giveaway

Hello Friends! For a second time, TFD visited one of our local high schools to give out more mental health kits for free! We value educating the importance of mental health as some of our youth do not experience this at home or in school. Last December, we visited and gave away 144 kits to PMSA students. With your help and sponsorship through our BOGO option, we were able to give away 115 kits, totaling to 259 kits given to PMSA students and Proviso youth. Follow our Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to follow our journey and to see which school is next!

Group Therapy | Session 1

On Saturday morning, TFD in partnership with Yo Soy Ella, hosted group therapy. Sarah, our host and Founder of Yo Soy Ella, discussed what worth means to our participants. Sarah first led the group through check-in to start our conversation off. Sarah told us she likes to open up the session first with check-ins because sometimes we need to talk without a plan while Sarah is here to listen and ask questions. When the discussion of worth began, Sarah asked what does worth mean and how have you been able to exercise self-worth.

Thank you so much to Sarah and Yo Soy Ella for hosting a wonderful session. We look forward to our next session Wednesday, January 25 at 10:00 AM. Sign up here for our next session!

Yoga and Journaling | Session 1

PC: Maya Hill

In 2023, we are starting off the new year with several mental health workshops! Last Saturday, we held out first yoga and journaling session with Kathy Khang, a local yoga instructor. For these sessions, we wanted people to feel as safe and welcomed as possible. In turn, these sessions will be free to community members and their own guests.

First, Kathy led the group through a short breath work cycle to ease their minds. Then, she started with the journaling session. Kathy asked the group to write out what it means to belong in their opinion. After some shared their thoughts, they immediately went into gentle yoga. Their stretches included happy baby, downward dog, and child pose. No experience with yoga was needed for these simple and gentle poses!

Our guests explained they felt immediately better after the stretches. One of our past mentees explained that he had been experiencing back pain and after, he felt a lot of the pain was eliminated.

Thank you so much to our guests for coming and to Kathy for leading us through an amazing first session, Make sure to register for our next session on Saturday, January 28th at 10 AM!