The Black and Brown Communities on Mental Health and Wellness hosted an event for a better trauma informed community on Tuesday.

At the Erie Center for Arts and Technology (ECAT), residents gathered to learn how adverse childhood experiences and trauma impact mental health.

The primary focus of the event was to spread awareness of mental health services to the community — as the rate of suicide in the black and brown community has skyrocketed over the last several years. This is most apparent in youth statistics.

Brandon Wiley, Erie Coalition for a Trauma Informed Community (ECTIC) co-chair, and VA counselor, noted that breaking the stigmas of mental health is important to getting people the help they need.

“This is not to say that one group of individual’s mental health is more important than the others, or so on and so forth. But again, just to hone in on the fact that stigmas exist, and there’s barriers to treatment, and we need to figure out how to treat these things appropriately,” Wiley said.

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