A one-day event is being planned this month in Locust Point that its organizer hopes will “reverberate throughout the city and spark hundreds or thousands of conversations about mental health that would not have happened otherwise.”
Anthony Sartori, founder of the workplace mental health nonprofit Evolving Minds, is organizing the event with funding he received in October as one of the recipients of a Baltimore Weaver Award. The annual awards, sponsored by the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., and M&T Bank, recognize local leaders who are actively “weaving” together strong social connections in their communities.
Sartori launched Evolving Minds in early 2020, just before the pandemic, with a pilot training program for Baltimore City Public Schools teachers, administrators, and counselors to support their mental health and well-being, providing them with tools and techniques to build social connections for themselves and with their students. The organization now also offers workplace mental health training for retail businesses, nonprofits, and social-impact organizations. Sartori, a Baltimore native now living in Locust Point, is also a national speaker with Active Minds, a leading U.S. mental health nonprofit for young adults.
The centerpiece of the Latrobe Park event will be a traveling exhibit from Active Minds called “Send Silence Packing.” The interactive exhibit highlights stories of people who have lost loved ones to suicide as well as stories of suicide-attempt survivors. The stories can be experienced by reading words affixed to individual bookbags or listening to audio recordings. The event will also feature booths with mental health resources and local vendors offering wellness services and products, Sartori said.
Having conversations with other people about mental health issues is difficult, Sartori acknowledges, but it can lead to an increased connectedness between people and reduce loneliness. And he planned to practice what he preaches leading up to the event.
“In my Weaver Award application, I challenged myself to knock on 100 of my neighbors’ doors, to invite them to the event, and to increase my own social connectedness, as a relative newcomer to the neighborhood. And potentially this will lead to conversations about mental health. We all have a mental health story. Asking people the right questions as neighbors could really open up important conversations.”
The free event is scheduled for 9am to 4pm on Saturday, March 16. Advance registration is requested. More information is available online. – Steve Cole
The original version of this story appeared in the December 2023 issue of the South Baltimore Peninsula Post.
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