Atlanta Hawks, Kaiser Permanente bring youth mental wellness summit to Powder Springs
The Atlanta Hawks and Kaiser Permanente co-hosted a mental wellness summit for middle school students, providing them with tools and resources to manage their mental health, such as guided yoga, stress management, and positive self-talk. The post Atlanta Hawks, Kaiser Permanente bring youth mental wellness summit to Powder Springs appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
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Approximately half a dozen students sit in a small classroom, coloring Hawks-themed notebooks as Jenae Ingram, a licensed clinical social worker, asks the students about how they felt last week. One said anxiously. One said confidently. One said, frustrated. Despite the mix of emotions filling the room, the students in the moment remained calm; they were leaning into a coping method most of them grew up with without ever knowing it had a name.
“One thing that I do with emotions is actually use coping skills,” Ingram told the group. “What y’all are doing right now, in coloring, is actually what we would consider a coping skill. It’s what we do to take our mind off of the emotions or the triggers that are at play.”
That moment unfolded Wednesday afternoon at the Ron Anderson Recreation Center in Powder Springs, where the Atlanta Hawks and Kaiser Permanente co-hosted “The Wellness Huddle: A Youth Mental Wellness Summit presented by Kaiser Permanente,” welcoming nearly 70 middle school students for an afternoon of interactive programming designed to give them real tools for managing their mental health.
The event featured three rotating stations: guided yoga and mind-body awareness paired with basketball integration, emotions and stress management, and positive self-talk and affirmations. Students left with a Hawks at-home workbook, yoga mat, water bottle, drawstring bag, and T-shirt.
Alexis Roe, vice president of community impact for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, said the summit was part of a broader Mental Health Awareness Month series built around three communities with distinct needs.
“We started this series on Saturday with the women of color health summit,” Roe said. “Today is all about our youth. We want them to understand that equally important to their physical health is their mental health, and if they’re frustrated, if they’re sad, if they are confused, there are platforms to talk about that.”
The Hawks and Kaiser Permanente launched their partnership in 2024, and the series will wrap on June 6 with “Built Different,” a men of color health summit.
Heading the mental health programming was Dr. Kensa Gunter, a licensed psychologist based in Atlanta who also serves as director of mind health for the NBA and WNBA. Gunter said every activity at the summit was chosen with the students’ developmental stage in mind.
“The idea was to identify developmentally appropriate strategies that youth could engage in,” Gunter said. “Most of the participants today are between the ages of 12 and 14. We want to make sure the activities are things that they could do now, but also that they could take with them.”
Gunter said the summit’s deeper goal goes beyond a single afternoon.
“We want the students to realize that we see you, and we recognize that just like your physical health matters, your mental health matters,” she said. “If you have healthy kids, it puts you on a pathway to having healthy adults.”
Brandon Gardner, community relations manager for Kaiser Permanente, said the partnership reflects Kaiser’s longstanding investment in Atlanta, where the health care organization has operated for more than 40 years.
“Kaiser truly is about investing into the local communities,” Gardner said. “Being able to collaborate with different community partners, just like the Atlanta Hawks, helps us further that mission of not just transactional relationships, but authentic relationships, where we want to give back.”
Roe said the tangible resources students received were deliberate.
“We want to give kids tools that they can use today,” she said, “and oftentimes, that’s just what they’re lacking.”
The post Atlanta Hawks, Kaiser Permanente bring youth mental wellness summit to Powder Springs appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.
