Empowerment Festival at The Chapman Cultural Center
To celebrate the recent opening of its new home in Spartanburg’s Chapman Cultural Center, nationally recognized mental health education and prevention non-profit, Mental Fitness, Inc., announces NOURISH FESTIVAL, SPARTANBURG: more than 20 programs to honor “Love Your Body” month and Eating Disorders Prevention month. The programming, which began on February 23, is sponsored by Veritas Collaborative Treatment Center.
The free or low cost workshops at Mental Fitness’s new Nourish Prevention Center feature some of the region’s most acclaimed researchers as well as local artists and experts. Each of the education programs teach parents, young people and educators valuable insights on a variety of primary prevention programs covering topics, like: social/emotional learning, stress management, disordered eating and obesity prevention. The programing will windup with a staged reading of the Jonathan Larson award-winning rock musical NORMAL at the Hub-Bub Showroom on March 2 directed by Valerie Barnet, who brought the Mental Fitness nonprofit programs to the South Carolina region three years ago.
The founder and CEO of Mental Fitness, Robyn Hussa Farrell, is thrilled to be bringing her bold and innovative programs to Spartanburg and could not be happier to be able to offer this content to the community through so many incredible partners. “The only way we get ahead of the many mental health issues affecting kids from all backgrounds, is to work together to get the conversation started. Mental Fitness is so grateful to the many community partners and organizations who are collaborating to bring evidence-based prevention and awareness programs to Spartanburg kids and families.”
Jennifer Evins, the President and CEO of The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, was instrumental in bringing Mental Fitness to Chapman Cultural Center and sees the collaboration paying off with so many new faces finding their way to the Cultural Center:
“Being able to engage the arts in upstream solutions for wellbeing is important to meeting the needs of our community and expanding the synergies and creative opportunities for our citizens, artists and professionals to collaborate. We are excited about the many offerings in the month of February, as well as the programs that Nourish provides every week at the Cultural Center.”
2015 marks the second year since Mental Fitness moved its operations from New York City to Spartanburg. Working with the nation’s top researchers in multiple areas of science, and with the help of community leaders, Mental Fitness opened the Nourish Prevention Center at Chapman this past November to bring primary prevention programs to Spartanburg children ages three and up, with parallel programs for parents. Spartanburg is the first city in the nation to pilot these groundbreaking prevention programs for pre-school age children.
Prior to its decision to shift focus to the health of the region’s youngest children, Mental Fitness offered its “three-tiered” mental health education programs to teachers and administrators in all seven of Spartanburg’s school districts.
The workshops continue through March 7. Programs range from no cost to $10 and registration is required by e-mailing programs@MentalFitnessInc.org. For a full calendar of events, go to NourishSpartanburg.com.
Sample of FREE Events include:
NORMAL THE MUSICAL, a staged reading of the Jonathan Larson award-winning live rock musical, Monday March 2nd at 7pm at the Hub-Bub Showroom
Parenting Insights with Dr. Harry Shucker of Furman University, Wednesday, March 4th at 5pm at NOURISH Chapman Cultural Center
Prevention Programs for Spartanburg Schools, featuring Dr. Melissa DeRosier who will demonstrate her evidence-based interactive gaming technology. 8am and 12noon on February 26th at NOURISH Chapman Cultural Center.