Teen Mental Health Summit This Week

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boysandgirlsclub6873-4

The Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor will host a teen mental health summit this week. The club’s John Sams tells WSJM News the gathering will be all day this Wednesday at the Joel E. Smilow Teen Center. The day will include break-out sessions on controlling one’s emotions, how the legal system treats mental illness, and bullying. Sams says the 2018 Teen Summit on Mental Health is hosted by the Keystone Club, a teen leadership group at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton Harbor.

“Our job is to facilitate and empower young people so they can do what they do,” Sams said. “I always say that this is not our club, this is their club. These are our leaders in our community. They’re our future doctors, our future lawyers, and they said they want to discuss this particular topic, and it’s our job to foster and grow these young people.”

Sams tells us the teens chose mental health awareness as the focus of this year’s summit to bring attention to the ways in which positive mental health can affect the community. The guest speaker will be Riverwood’s Siobhan Williams, and Boys and Girls Club Michigan Youth of the Year Quincy Sulton will also speak. The event starts with registration at noon Wednesday. Everyone is welcome.