The COPE Clinic promotes resiliency and mental wellness among young people, especially those in underserved communities. The program aims to understand mental health crises, develop vocational skills, and practice coping techniques for managing stress through innovative opportunities, including experiential learning segments or COPE activities. These activities encourage open dialogue about behavioral health and underscore the importance of seeking help early for mental health challenges.
The COPE Clinic involves
COPE Clinic: This is an annual full-day convening that engages young people in panel discussions, self-expression activities, interactive college and career readiness workshops, and self-care practices to promote healthy living transitioning into adulthood.
COPE Activities: Offering interactive self-care activities that last 60-75 minutes (physical, emotional, social, intellectual, occupational, environmental, spiritual, and financial). These include yoga and meditation sessions, networking, financial literacy seminars, book clubs, and community outreach projects designed to empower youth to take control of their well-being.
Partnerships with Youth-Serving Organizations: Collaborating with up to ten after-school and youth-serving organizations to deliver 30-40 activities annually. This approach aims to engage hard-to-reach individuals, promoting mental health and wellness, self-care skill building, and empowering young people.
Support for Caregivers and Youth Serving Employees: Providing access to a virtual parent café to help caregivers support youth mental health and resilience and on-demand employee workplace wellness seminars to increase mental health literacy. This comprehensive approach promotes positive youth development and mental wellness in the community.
Culturally Sensitive Facilitation: Engaging skilled, culturally sensitive facilitators to interact with youth aged 10-19 in underserved communities, ensuring the program is accessible and relevant to those it aims to serve.
Check out our Free Your Feels Teen Summit!
Free Your Feels is a mental health awareness campaign encouraging Georgia's young people to explore their real feelings and share them fearlessly.
In September 2022, Silence the Shame partnered with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities, VOX ATL, and Voices for Georgia's Children to host the Free Your Feels Teen Summit to engage in authentic and uncensored conversations with teens discussing their mental health and wellness. Youth participants engaged in yoga and expression stations, where they had the opportunity to create free your feels content including creating reels and other video content to be shared on social media platforms. While adult participants engaged in a Parent Cafe session to how to be trusted adults as they teach youth to cope with life's challenges, manage stress, and make healthy decisions to better promote healthy development.
Check out our Teen Mental Wellness Courtside Chat!
The C.O.P.E Clinic featured a virtual courtside chat moderated by Founder & CEO, Shanti Das, featuring recording artist and actress Chlöe Bailey and ATL Hawks All-Star Player Trae Young. They share messages for teens about mental wellness, healthy coping strategies, and how to practice ways to maintain well-being.
Check out our Audio Engineering COPE Activity
While partnering with the Atlanta Hawks during Summer 2022, we offered Community Outreach & Practice Efforts (COPE) Activities for youth 13-15! These vocational skills-building opportunities promoted healthy coping and social connections. They learned valuable skills such as podcasting, community outreach & civic engagement, deejaying, audio engineering for making music, and building a bike! Check out a recap from our Audio Engineering COPE Activity with Patchwerk Studios.
