{"id":1101,"date":"2020-04-30T08:47:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T08:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.com\/?page_id=1101"},"modified":"2020-08-17T17:30:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:30:57","slug":"humans-of-healthier-together","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/our-communities\/humans-of-healthier-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Humans Of Healthier Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Our Communities<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Humans of Healthier Together<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Freslaine St. Louis, Project Coordinator, BeWellPBC <\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"<\/em><\/p>

Freslaine Saint Louis, Project Coordinator at BeWellPBC<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and youth minister at Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Delray Beach, FL became a trailblazer for removing the stigma and fear around mental health in Palm Beach County\u2019s Haitian communities through Healthier Delray Beach.\u00a0 This is her story.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cAs a youth minister, I understand that the first place many congregants will turn when they have a problem is their pastor.\u00a0 But in my Haitian church, there was resistance and fear around the term \u201cmental health,\u201d which conjures up images of people with severe conditions, rather than recognizing it can also describe everyday stress and anxiety.<\/p>

When I became involved with Healthier Delray Beach, I saw how I could use my position at the church to increase understanding around behavioral health.\u00a0 I was introduced to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a nationally renowned eight-hour course that gives people the skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. I believed the training had the potential to reach the parents of my church\u2019s 700-member congregation and teach them how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders among their children.\u00a0 I saw first-hand how quickly and easily children and teens with anxiety and stress could turn to substance abuse.\u00a0 I knew we couldn\u2019t be passive. We had to have difficult conversations, or risk losing them.<\/p>

Although there was resistance at first, I persevered, advocating alongside the first lady of our church who is a mental health professional. MHFA is now not only accepted, it has grown through word of mouth and parents are realizing the benefits of learning how to communicate and engage more with their children. The program has become so deeply embraced by the church that they are working on making MHFA a requirement for its leadership curriculum.<\/p>

With funding from Palm Health Foundation, I became one of the first Haitian Creole-speaking MHFA trainers in Palm Beach County.\u00a0 I have become a trusted resource at my church and in Haitian communities across the county, breaking through stigma while respecting my culture to promote brain health and save the lives of our children.\u201d<\/p>

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Betzy Rega, Health Coordinator, Community Outreach, El Sol<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"Betzy Rega is the Health Coordinator, Community Outreach, at El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center<\/strong><\/a><\/span> for day laborers, their children and families. Betzy was involved from the very beginning of Healthier Jupiter<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, integrating her role and her organization in the work of the initiative.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWhen Palm Health Foundation<\/a><\/span><\/strong> came to us, Healthier Together was just a concept.\u00a0 We were the first county community chosen and they told us we would be the model for the others.\u00a0 But we really didn\u2019t know what we were doing.\u00a0 It was very difficult to see a vision in the beginning.\u00a0 We invited people and they didn\u2019t come, and we lost some people along the way.<\/p>

The ones who stayed, we all had a big stake in it.\u00a0 It was about coming together as a community to focus on things for everyone to be healthy, regardless of socio-economic level. We were dealing with language and status issues and different cultures, but the more we hung on and kept inviting people to get involved, it started to take shape.<\/p>

I think every community needs to be able to reach out to the people who live there and hear from them. From surveying residents at El Sol, we found out that many parents didn\u2019t know where the parks were.\u00a0 \u00a0So we created a \u201cGet Fit Map\u201d helping people learn where our parks, beaches, walking trails and schools were so they could have access to outdoor places to exercise safely. When we learned that Jupiter had the highest number of bike accidents in Palm Beach County, we created a bike safety program.<\/p>

Then there was the police department.\u00a0 They wanted to get beyond the fear that the Hispanic residents had for the police. We canvased the community asking what we could do. We started a soccer tournament with residents playing police officers.\u00a0 It turned into an annual family community day and gave the police and residents a chance to know each other.<\/p>

We were becoming the glue that was pulling everyone together around the table.\u00a0 We had the attention of local government and we also had the confidence of the community\u2014we spoke their language and batted for them.\u00a0 We were becoming a vehicle toward everyone having a voice.\u00a0<\/p>

It hasn\u2019t been easy, but now Healthier Jupiter<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is woven into the fabric of who we are as a community.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Patrick Livingston, Founder, Arms of Hope<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"Patrick Livingston<\/em> is the founder of Arms of Hope<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em>, a non-profit organization that helps to feed the hungry and aims to rebuild hope where it has been damaged or lost.\u00a0While hesitant at first, Patrick has become an integral part of Healthier Lake Worth Beach<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, nourishing both body and soul.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cBefore Healthier Lake Worth Beach, I felt like a man on an island.\u00a0 You\u2019re in an area that\u2019s been depressed and forgotten for a long time.\u00a0 You have a pocket that wants you there, one that doesn\u2019t, and one that doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. We were just trying to help folks.\u00a0<\/p>

I was reluctant to go to my first Healthier Lake Worth Beach meeting. We\u2019re short staffed as it is. Honestly, it wasn\u2019t such a great meeting and I left pretty skeptical. I was encouraged to come back and at the next meeting I was made to feel a part of it.\u00a0 They asked me what my thoughts were and got me to engage.<\/p>

It was a match because we were able to work together and try to meet a common goal. Arms of Hope is feeding the community and taking care of one part of their needs, but we know for them to come to us looking for help, there has got to be some underlying issues.\u00a0 Food is on the surface. How do we get them to trust us, tell us their stories and get to the core issues that will really make an impact in their lives?\u00a0 That\u2019s what Healthier Lake Worth Beach stood for\u2014they wanted to understand mental health for what people are going through in the community to create change.\u00a0<\/p>

What we\u2019ve done in the last one-and-a-half years is tremendous. With the people that come to get their food, it was easy for us to involve them in cleaning up the community.\u00a0 They had a central, comfortable place where they were meeting. We took it one step further to walk around the community and clean it up together.\u00a0 The community sees who is doing the cleanups. And those doing the cleanups can celebrate their achievements. It\u2019s reassuring.\u00a0 They can say, ‘I\u2019m a part of that.\u00a0 We did that.’\u00a0 They feel like they\u2019re a part of the community.\u00a0<\/p>

The streets are so much cleaner now.\u00a0 Before, when you would walk around the community you would see Haitians, Spanish-speaking folks, and other members of the community gathering by their own groups. It\u2019s not groups anymore. Everyone is interacting with each other. Kids of all different backgrounds are playing together.\u00a0 Men are playing with kids from all different backgrounds.\u00a0 You can see how everyone is starting to feel comfortable with one another.\u00a0<\/p>

I thought I was going to give up a lot of my time to be a part of Healthier Lake Worth Beach<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. I did, but in return, the support I received helped me to grow and reach more people.\u00a0 That\u2019s the common goal.\u00a0<\/p>

And it all starts and revolves around a meal.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Communities Humans of Healthier Together Freslaine St. Louis, Project Coordinator, BeWellPBC Freslaine Saint Louis, Project Coordinator at BeWellPBC and youth minister at Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Delray Beach, FL became a trailblazer for removing the stigma and fear around mental health in Palm Beach County\u2019s Haitian communities through Healthier Delray Beach.\u00a0 This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1101\/revisions\/3002"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthiertogetherpbc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}