LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE FUNDRAISER

Bright, dazzling lights filling the room. Vivid brilliant colors draping every inch. Aerial artists dropping from the Great Court ceiling. Jugglers walking around performing. A dazzling array of other performances will highlight Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health’s (C&A) 15th annual Let Your Light Shine (LYLS) fundraiser on April 4, with all proceeds benefiting the agency. This year’s theme is Cirque de Lumiere.

WHAT’S NEW?

This year’s event will feature new twists to the traditional event. Previous LYLS events had a casino or gaming table theme. This year’s one-of-a-kind unique event will feature a spectacular cirque performance from Down To Earth Aerials, a Raleigh-based theatrical cirque company. Down to Earth Aerials is a well-known cirque troupe performing all over Virginia and North Carolina including The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The North Carolina State Fair, North Carolina Museum of History, KFC Canada and Watkins Glen International Speedway.

Dazzling cirque performances will include a stilt walker, jugglers, a contortionist, aerialists and a cyr wheel artist. This amazing, vibrant, colorful performance promises to leave those in attendance in awe. Floor performances will take place all evening before the main performance.

HONORING OUR PAST

2020 marks 15 anniversary of this inspiring event spotlighting the services C&A is able to provide children ages 0 to 24 who are experiencing behavioral and emotional mental health issues. On Feb. 20, C&A honored our past chairpersons of this event which spotlights our children and programming that enables youth and adolescents the chance at health, hope and happiness. The first chairperson and originator of this event was Nancy Pryce. Pryce started this event to raise awareness and funds for C&A’s services. The initial LYLS had a unique concept of hanging a wooden painted rainbow on the side of the Central Trust building at the corner of Market Avenue North and Tuscarawas Street.

On the rainbow were numbered light bulbs. The last light bulb to burn out was the grand prize winner. Unfortunately, a light bulb can burn for a year or longer, so the display came down after a couple of months. Other past chairpersons include Robin Clark, Holly Davies, Lisa Warburton Gregory, Stephanie Green, Danielle Higgins, Ann McCabe, Dr. Michael McCabe, Melissa Pitinii, Karen Smetana, Mark Spano, Tim Voros and Derek Williams. This year’s chair is Monica Gwin.

TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL WAYS TO PARTICIPATE

C&A will have the traditional live and silent auction. Some enticing and unique auction items include a one-week trip to Cancun, Cleveland Whiskey Tour and Tasting for 25 people, Country Fest basket (includes two tickets), Tickets to a Cirque performance in Cleveland with a hotel stay, a Calloway Driver and Stand Bag and Down To Earth Aerials is donating a cirque performance to one lucky winner.

New to this year’s event is a Grand Raffle $2,500 Money Tree, where the winner needs not be present to win. A limited number of $25 tickets are for sale from committee members. Raffle tickets may be purchased on our LYLS shine page.

No donation is too small. Young professionals and community members can make a small donation which appears to be a small act but this will have a big impact. Community members can make a token donation of $1, $5 or $10 through PayPal, which will have a significant impact on services and programming C&A is able to provide to more than 4,400 children each year.

HOW DO I PURCHASE TICKETS?

Tickets are currently on sale by clicking on this link - https://childandadolescent.org/let-your-light-shine-2020-cirque-de-lumiere/ If you have any questions, please call Melissa Coultas at 330-454-7917, ext. 117 or email mcoultas@childandadolescent.org.

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STARK COUNTY SCHOOLS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

16 Apr, 2024

The sixth annual Stark County Schools Mental Health Awareness Week is May 6-10 Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A), CommQuest Services and Pathway Caring for Children will partner to bring positive mental health awareness to more than 53,000 students and 7,000 support and administrative staff in all 18 Stark County School districts.

UNDERSTANDING RACE IN SOCIETY AND THERAPY: CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS’ EXPERIENCES

By Chris Alpert • 16 Nov, 2023

In the film, I’m Not Racist… Am I? as introduced and explored in first of this three-part blog post series, the participants engaged in multiple workshops that address race and racism. Interpersonally, the group of students grapple with their own differences and similarities, which impact the content and emotions they share with each other. There are several moments in the film that demonstrate the clear differences in the participants’ understanding of race. In the first workshop, the students were exposed to the idea that all white people are inherently racist seeing as American society was founded on principles meant to support white people (see more on structural racism here, here, and here for further understanding). Several white students in the film became emotional during that workshop. Most students remained quiet. Following this workshop, a black student and a white student were filmed independently of each other in their own homes and discussed the workshop and what they learned with their families. The white student discussed the differences between structural racism and bigotry with her mother and struggled to identify with the principles taught in the training. The black student stated to his mother how almost everything spoken in that workshop applied to him. The student further discussed his feelings by stating how overt racism is and yet how “subliminal” it is at the same time. How can something be so in your face and yet under your feet simultaneously? I immediately reflected on the dialectic of something being so clear and yet so vague. The film continued to grapple with student differences. At the beginning of the film, one white male student discussed with his mother how he feels that all individuals, if they apply themselves wholeheartedly, have the same chance of success regardless of their skin, gender, sexuality or other demographic factors. As a white man myself, I must confess that when I was in high school, I had the same mindset. How could it be different? Especially when I was reading mythic bootstrap literature in high school classes. Sure, the harder you work the more you deserve, but that statement does not work for all Americans. I had not accounted for racial factors that inhibit the growth of others, not to mention socio-economic factors, nationalities, citizenship status, gender and age. I continued to reflect on these statements and connected them to my experience in high school in New York City. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement responding to the murder of George Floyd, multiple private progressive schools in New York, including the one I went to, suffered scrutiny from students and alumni who identify as black, indigenous people of color (BIPOC). Multiple Instagram accounts surfaced with the handle “BLACK AT [school name].” I read the posts in 2020, and again before writing this post, and remembered feeling horrified knowing these acts of racism, bigotry and microaggressions happened all around me. This was subliminal to me, yet overt to others.

UNDERSTANDING RACE IN SOCIETY AND THERAPY

By Chris Alpert • 01 Nov, 2023

When I first came to Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A), I was unsure what to expect regarding race and diversity at both the organization and in Ohio. Having grown up in Harlem in New York City and attended graduate school in San Diego, CA, I had heard stereotypes about Ohio, specifically that Ohio was a very white state. At C&A during orientation, we discussed the role of first impressions for clients and discussed how the front desk staff are considered, “the directors of first impressions.” I loved this term. After orientation, I wondered, why we didn’t discuss demographic factors such as race and gender? We generally pick those up upon first impressions and have implicit biases and judgements in those first impressions. It was odd to me that we did not discuss these demographic factors. As the summer and fall progressed, I noticed that there were few discussions about race as it impacts C&A and the kids and families we serve. I noticed the number of white staff at C&A and reflected on my own privilege as a white man who can easily avoid the discussion of race because I do not suffer discrimination on an individual or systemic level. I reflected on my first experiences discussing race in high school. When I was in high school at the Calhoun School, my father received a grant to create a film and workshops that addressed race and racism seen through the eyes of high schoolers in New York City. My dad had completed a training hosted by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. This training opened my father’s eyes to his own white privilege and motivated him to teach kids, specifically white kids, about their privilege earlier in life. I first saw the film, I’m Not Racist… Am I? (see more here ), toward the end of high school after it had come out in 2014.

THE DANGERS OF MARIJUANA USE

By Dr. Karita Nussbaum • 20 Oct, 2023

Ohio is at a crossroads once again with marijuana on the ballot next month. The following article is from Every Brain Matters, an organization that believes that the THC in marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug. Every Brain Matters is a trusted source of educational material based on the latest scientific evidence. One of the major criticisms of expanded marijuana legalization is that it makes the drug more accessible to minors. A brand-new study just published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that it has become a valid concern.

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE – SOUTHERN NIGHTS: ILLUMINATING HOPE AND MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION

By Savannah Okray • 11 Sep, 2023

For the last few months, C&A has been diligently preparing for the 18th Annual Let Your Light Shine – Southern Nights presented by The Repository by organizing auction items, printing tickets and using their creativity to make sure that eventgoers feel as though they are walking into an evening in the south, with barrels and lanterns to boot. The committee, led by chair Jen Frey and co-chair Molly Sperling and auction chair Stacy Remark are hard at work, it’s crucial to remember that this event raises awareness and dollars to support the agency’s programs and services amid suicide prevention and awareness month.

GROWING WITH YOUR CHILD AS A PARENT

By Dan Mucci • 30 Aug, 2023

I have grown up as a parent for the last four and half years! As luck would have it, a little more than four and a half years ago, I started at Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A) in the mission advancement department with my responsibilities being the marketing and development coordinator. Some might say, I did a good job of raising my two kids, who were teenagers at the time. But, boy, if I had known of the services C&A offered and even some of the parenting tools for my toolbox, parenting might have been even better.

WHAT DID YOU DID THIS SUMMER?

By Dr. Karita Nussbaum • 09 Aug, 2023

This summer I attended a Marijuana Prevention conference near Denver, Colorado. I was curious to know what the locals were saying after 10 years of legalization. The speakers included a Denver Police Commander, school resource officer, medical doctor, residential treatment program CEO, deputy from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), Executive Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association and others related to educating the community and defending children’s rights. In the audience were parents, professionals and advocates for children from all over the United States. The conference was geared toward the protection of children.

FROM DARKNESS TO DISCOVERY: MY COLLEGE JOURNEY OF SELF-TRANSFORMATION

By Savannah Okray • 24 Jul, 2023

When I arrived on campus, I tried to immerse myself in college culture. I joined a sorority, the speech and debate team, and two other clubs which were extensive time commitments, factoring in no time to relax or focus on bettering my mental health. This lack of attention to my mentality, combined with my low self-esteem that prevented me from making friends led me down a dark hole in which some days I thought it would be better if I wasn’t here. About four weeks into school (at Ohio University), I realized that I had to do something, as I knew it was not safe for me to continue down the road I had been on. From there I moved home and attended an inpatient treatment center where I worked with counselors for five hours a day, learning coping skills and other ways in which I could help mend my suffering mental health. Through the lessons I learned I was able to get the skill set and help I needed and returned to school three weeks later.

THIS IS WHY WE CELEBATE

By Mary Kreitz • 19 Jun, 2023

This time of year there are a lot of celebrations happening in our communities – Memorial Day, Pride Festivals, Juneteenth celebrations, 4th of July and many more. These events aren’t just frivolous excuses to have parties, backyard barbecues or festivals. They are important cultural and civic events we need these celebrations.