(MENAFNEditorial)
Third Annual VOICE AWARDS Took Center Stage. Debuted Original Film Produced In Palm Beach County. Featuring PBC Moms and Siblings Candidly Sharing Their Struggles and Perspectives
With more than 200 attending from a diverse cross-section of the Palm Beach County community, the high powered, inspiring and healing call-to-action 2016 Voice Awards luncheon program held at the Kravis Center, Cohen Pavilion celebrated strides by key community leaders in breaking the silence on mental illness countywide. With an audience filled with residents, educators, government officials, healthcare and business leaders, employers, employees, religious leaders and media, the event presented by the Palm Beach County Action Alliance for Mental Health and underwritten by the Lukens Foundation encouraged critical community conversations to increase support for families, friends, neighbors and colleagues in crisis.
The audience included PBC residents, educators, elected government officials and legislators, healthcare and business leaders, employers, employees, religious leaders and media.
Driven by Boca Ratons Promise and hosted by its emboldened I AM 1 Womens auxiliary of moms and siblings, the program debuted a 7-minute original film We Are One produced by Boca Raton-based Information Television Network (ITV) featuring several women in Palm Beach County sharing their personal family struggles and losses and the impact on siblings, marriages, friends, schools, co-workers, workplaces and neighborhood sports. As guests arrived, they viewed an interpretive gallery display: Mental Health HEAD ON created by the students of the FAU College of Nursing that showcases perspectives into what is going on the in head of a patient struggling with mental illness. Following the presentation of the VOICE AWARDS, one Palm Beach County mother Ladi March from Riviera Beach shared her and her sons story and her vision Our Kind of Possible.
Grand benefactor Marla Kosec, a major contributor to BRP who lost two siblings to mental illness and whose mother is co-founder of Boca Ratons Promise, concluded the program In Gratitude to those who are using their voices to break the deafening silence that devastates families, preventing them from seeking the critical help and services they need. Kosec continues to honor the memory Lord Anthony Jacobs who over the past years entrusted the leadership of BRP with more than $400,000 in his lifetime to help turn up the volume of encouraging people to talk about mental health in Palm Beach Florida. Calling both London and Palm Beach home, Lord Jacobs believed that the small relentlessly determined group voice of Boca Ratons Promise would continue to achieve and accomplish much more, with help, which has proven to be a resounding truth.
Lord Anthony Jacobs contributed so much as an individual who inspired this organization to continue their combined efforts to walk the walk and talk the talk, shared Kosec.
Notable attendees included U.S. Representative Lois Frankel who broke her own silence in her welcome remarks; U.S. Congressman Ted Deutch; Senator Joseph Abruzzo, State of Florida;
Commissioner Dave Kerner, Palm Beach County; Mayor Steve Grant, Boynton Beach;
Mayor Bernard Featherman, Highland Beach. Luncheon emcee was Bonnie S Kaye of Kaye Communications PR & Marketing; speakers and Voice Award presenters were U.S. Congressman Ted Deutch; Dr. Phil Heller, Psy.D.; Keith Oswald, Chief Academic Officer, School District of PBC; Kim Mazauskas, Boca Ratons Promise, Board of Directors; Rev. Mayor (Boynton Beach) Woodrow Hay, Boynton Beach Mental Health Committee; Dr. Mike Kane, School District PBC/Counselor Specialist, Steering Committee, PBC Action Alliance; Marsha Martino, Director NAMI-PBC and Rita Thrasher, PBC Action Alliance/Presenting Chairmans Award.
2016 Voice Awards were presented in the following categories:o Advocacy: Johanna Kandel
o Community Engagement: Dr. Seth Bernstein
o Film Production: Ana Cristina Lerner
o Community Leadership: Gerda Klein
o Service and Training: Dr. Holly Katz
o Author: Donna Gephart, Lilly & Dunkin
o Chairmans Award: Sun Sentinel for its recent expose Dying For Help on mental health in South Florida about families struggling with severely mentally ill relatives, then becoming victims of their violence. The feature revealed how Floridas health care system is too stressed to prevent the tragedies.
Demonstrating that emotional and mental illnesses are more common than many think. Key statistics shared during the luncheon include that 1 in 4 adults will have a mental illness in their lifetime; mental illness outnumbers cancer, diabetes and heart attacks combined; one-half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14 and 22% of middle school students reported considering suicide (2011). These illnesses are related to bullying, dropout, absenteeism, violence; it affects all ages, cultures, faiths, workplaces and schools. Because is not taught, nor talked about the silence fear and shame prevent those who need help and their loved ones from seeking it.
For more information on the Boca Ratons Promise, its mission, vision and programming and/or the Palm Beach County Action Alliance, visit www.bocaratonspromise.org, email infobocaratonspromise.org or call (561) 866-1850.
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