Destigmatizing Vulnerability with Julius Boatwright

Warning: This conversation references suicide and suicidal ideations.
If you have distressing emotional experiences that interfere with your ability to function, consider talking to a licensed mental health professional.

Julius Boatwright, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Steel Smiling, joins us in this conversation discussing mental health access, stigma, and healing within the Black community. Steel Smiling looks to bridge the gap between Black people and mental health support through education, advocacy, and awareness. Julius is a Licensed Master Social Worker with additional training in Trauma-Informed Community Practices, Human Services Management and leadership. He is passionate about ensuring that all communities have access to mental health resources.

The following is a transcript of the conversation between Julius and Spora Health founder and CEO, Dan Miller on mental health and vulnerability from the Black male perspective.

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A Conversation on Black Mental Health

Dan Miller: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Link. I'm your host, Dan Miller, founder and CEO Spore Health, and the Link is where we have avant garde conversations with culture creators, about health and equity for black Americans. And today's guest is Julius Boatwright. Hi, Julius. 

Julius Boatwright: Hey, brother, how are you doing? 

Dan: I'm doing pretty good. Really excited about today's conversation. How are you? 

Julius: I'm well, likewise, looking forward to it.

Dan: Good. Well, maybe we start with a brief introduction. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and help our guests learn a bit more about you and the work that you do?

Julius Boatwright c/o Black Enterprise

Julius: Absolutely. I like to think of myself as you know, someone who's just really, really passionate about all things mental health. And the reason for that is just I have just so many of my own personal lived experiences and also professional as well. So mental health to me, it's not really a job or a career, it's just something that I really firmly just believe and feel that it's, it's a call, it's something that I've been called and gifted to do. And it's just a part of my life, you know, how I show up with people and try to just bring empathy into every conversation that I have. And really just let people know that it's okay to acknowledge that everyone has mental health. And, you know, just holding ourselves accountable to supporting one another, and making space for people as they're navigating their own mental health journey. So that's pretty much how I show up in all parts of my life is with that, with that at the forefront.

Dan: Awesome. Awesome. And can you tell us a bit more about Steel Smiling?

Julius: Absolutely. So Steel Smiling is a community based nonprofit organization that was formed in December 2015. And when we started, we mainly just started as a digital resource provider. So we were sharing different articles and resources to help connect folks throughout the Greater Pittsburgh region to different mental health support and services. Over the years, that mission and that vision came into focus a lot more. And we started to really focus our efforts in the black community. And just over the past few years, with so much that's been happening, not just with the pandemic, but with all the conversations and, and things happening around African American folks just really around the globe, our work has really just grown exponentially. And more folks have been reaching out to us for support. So our mission is really just pretty simple- to help connect black folks to, you know, culturally specific, culturally competent, and really just effective mental health supports and resources. We do that through training programs, through providing referrals for folks, and really just trying to build up that ecosystem of Black mental health and wellness for folks, not only in the Pittsburgh region, but also throughout the country as well. So it's just been some very exciting work, the growth has been phenomenal, our impact has been amazing. We don't have it all figured out, you know, we're still learning going into as we approach our sixth year or sixth anniversary, I should say, in a couple months here. So We by no means have it all figured out. But we're getting to that point where, you know, we'll be able to introduce some, some models for the services and support that we provide, at scale at a national level. So that's pretty exciting.

Dan: That's very exciting. I have so many questions. First and foremost, stemming from your story and sort of using your lived experience in showing up in a specific way in your life and the work that you do. Social work is known as a field that tends to have a big lack of Black male representation, especially across leadership. I'm curious, what brought you to social work? You mentioned you thought there was a calling? Was there a moment in time or was there a combination of events that brought you to this type of work?

Julius: I would say the most important part that really brought me to this work was knowing that as a young, Black male, even when I was in my teenage years, I knew that I was struggling with mental health challenges, but I didn't really have the language to talk about what I was dealing with or experiencing in my household. My parents, they didn't really have the language for it. So I didn't really know what mental health or social work even was, until I got to grad school. I was studying to become a sports journalist at that point. Just having my own childhood experiences as a young person, and knowing that I was experiencing something, right? Now, I know, it was depression. I know it was anxiety. Now I know it was having those suicidal ideations. But at that time, I didn't have anyone around me to help me put words to it. So I think, very, very early on in life, I got to a point where I said, you know, what, 'I really want to help other people who might be dealing with these, these feelings or these emotions, and not really having the language for them.' And that just, it just kind of grew stronger and stronger as I got older.

Dan : So poignant the awareness of not having the language to describe what was happening, specifically for our population of folks that are Black males. I wonder how the stigma is continuing to potentially come into play when you all think about the services that you provide, sort of educating folks on potentially how to develop the language to describe what they're feeling or sensing? Or just broadly helping folks understand that these are symptoms of mental health conditions, and what to do if you're experiencing any of these. 

Julius Boatwright: Yeah, absolutely. I think about our training program. We have this two year long training program for Black adults here. And that's one of the programs that we still have to iron out some kinks, but it's something that we definitely see being able to be scaled for folks in other cities outside of Pennsylvania. And I just remember this one conversation. It was early on with one of our cohorts, and one of the young men, we were talking about, vulnerability, and how do we as black men who are adults, how do we get comfortable with being vulnerable and being transparent and being able to say,  'I think I'm struggling with my mental health', 'I think I need help', 'I think I need support', without it being perceived as a sign of weakness? I was a part of this session, and for me, when I talk about being vulnerable it feels like it's like second nature. It's something that I've embraced and something that I take pride in. But I just remember this young man said 'you can't be vulnerable and where I'm from, like, it's not, it's not a real thing'. If I'm vulnerable, then he's saying that the wolves out there are going to get him. He's referencing other human beings that maybe he's known. And he's like, if we're vulnerable to that degree that  you're encouraging us to be vulnerable in, we could potentially be like life or death for us. So just like that story sticks with me so much, because it's one thing to be vulnerable and to ask for help, and to be open to receiving it. But it's another thing for us to make space for people in our communities to have their truth be honored at the same time. So he wasn't saying he didn't want to be vulnerable. He was just saying that in that process of being vulnerable, he also wants to make sure that he's protected. And he doesn't have to fear for his own safety or fear for the safety of his family members or his loved one. That was just really profound for me, and it raised our level of awareness about what it means to create safe spaces for people and how what may feel or seem safe for one person may not feel or seem safe for the next.

Dan: Yes. And that's exactly it. This is an interesting dynamic for population specific care models and thinking about solutions in a culture-centered way, because for that individual, there are inherent additional challenges to his experience in sharing and being vulnerable that may not exist, as you mentioned, with others. I'm curious then, how y'all think about having consideration for scenarios in which these dynamics may show up? And how to still provide care services in a way that has high levels of efficacy, but you're still nuanced enough for supporting cases where potentially, the care models haven't sort of incorporated these sorts of dynamics. 

Julius: That level of care and consideration is really nuanced. It's really complex. And to be quite frank, it's really challenging to not even just enact and sustain that at a small level, but to think about what that looks like, at scale. Because we know we're not a monolith. We know that some of the experiences are similar in 'Black America'. Some of those experiences are similar, but there are dynamics that are unique. Putting on my leadership hat, I always have to check myself with this, because I'm always in our meetings, when I'm having conversations with staff, and even people in the community, you talk about the grand vision and where you, where you hope for the vision to go and how the community can own that vision, and do some co creation with the community. But one of the things I've learned is that there has to be someone from these communities that's a part of the process, like every step of the way. We by no means think that we coined this or created this. This is an old school process, where if you're going to serve the community, you have to have people who are from those communities involved. Not just say, 'Oh, we're going to serve Black folks. So we need to have Black folks at the table.' If you're serving a specific neighborhood, we need to have neighborhood representation at these tables and as a part of these cohorts in these groups, because these are the people that know that people from the neighborhood.

Community Mental Health Advocate, John Parker Sr., who has been supporting the wellness needs of his community since 2019. John is also committed to youth mentorship and providing meals for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. c/o @SteelSmilingPGH

For example, we just had a graduating class from our work workforce development training program, and the community member who was the glue that kept them all together was someone who pretty much knew all food could say like, 'oh, I know, you because I coached your son in youth football' or 'your grandmother was a mentor to me' or 'your sister went to school with my cousin'. So like somebody from the community, who when they show up at a basketball game or the community center, everyone's like, 'hey, like, good to see you again. How's your mom? How are the kids?' That type of person with that depth of connectivity is crucial, because they are going to have their finger on the pulse. Not me, not the researcher who's helping us do the assessments, not the funder, the investor. None of us are going to have our finger on the pulse like that person, that trusted person in that community. So then they can come to us, and they can say, 'hey, you remember when we had that session with this person? They were talking about vulnerability, and how if they are vulnerable, this could happen? You know, this trauma happened to them, or that thing happened to them. So just giving us that perspective allows us to be able to provide the best level of care, engagement and support that we can provide. Because I'm not out in the trenches in these neighborhoods when stuff is happening with people day in and day out. So we had people who have been there, historically speaking, and who will continue to be there to bring it to life and take it to that next level of impact. 

Dan: And these are folks that either work for Steel Smiling, or have some sort of affiliation or connection?

Julius: Yeah, so they're generally folks that go through some training themselves, and if they're not an official payroll staff person, they're staff adjacent. Part of our long term goal is to, number one, make sure these folks have their autonomy. Some of them don't have an interest in working for Steel Smiling. They'll say they have an interest in being nimble in terms of responsiveness to the community, and to be able to leverage the support and the resources in the network of Steel Smiling, but they still need to be able to show up as themselves. As much as we would love to hire these folks and have them on as official staff people, we know that a big part of their magic is just them, and we just try to operationalize it and provide the right type of technical support and training as best as we can to let them like shine in that regard.

Dan: So what all does Steel Smiling encompass outside of those trainings and upskilling folks, in addition to some of the curricula that you mentioned earlier?

Julius: That's one of our flagship programs, that's called Beams to Bridges. That's the two year workforce development program that's really doing what you said, upskilling folks, and providing them with tools and techniques to be able to support themselves, while they're also being trusted community mental health advocates. Our other main program, if you will, is called the Black Mental Health Fund Referral program. We didn't really create this. It's something that people have been doing for decades, making referrals connecting people to services all throughout the behavioral health landscape. But one of the things that we find in this hyper local, Greater Pittsburgh, region level, Black folks are reaching out to us. When we ask them why they contacted us, they oftentimes will say, it's because there wasn't anybody else that they knew of that could connect them to culturally competent black mental health professionals. But they don't always request a Black mental health professional, there one or two times out of 10, where folks are like, 'It doesn't matter. I just need somebody who's just competent, period and who can address the challenges that I'm dealing with.' So it's not always like a deal breaker. But most of the time, people are like, 'Yeah, I reached out to you, because it is important to me, it's not a non-negotiable, but it's important to me to be able to find a competent, efficient, Black mental health professional.' So that's, that's what we do with the Black mental health fund. 

So, our core programing is just the Workforce Development Program and the referral program. I would say the other piece is the de-stigmatization of having the conversation. At a local level, Steel Smiling is slowly becoming synonymous with Black mental health. So, you know, we're just very intentional about language, about stories, about storytelling, about uplifting the Black mental health experience in a way that is attractive, that is digestible, and that's inspiring. And so we think we have the language and the storytelling piece down to really be able to do some real stigma reduction campaigns like beyond the Pittsburgh region. 

Dan: Awesome. I definitely want to hear more about that. I'm curious about a process of thinking through de-stigmatization at a local level that scales and then the researcher in me can't help but think how are you thinking about measuring that. But for the mental health fund, do you run off donations from individuals? I'm only asking if there's a way that we can support? 

Julius: Yeah, great question. So it emerged in 2020. We were making a couple of referrals at that time every other week. Then a lot of the racial reckoning stuff sort of rose to the surface for a lot of people. There were folks that already knew what was happening and what was going on, but there were a lot of folks who were sort of sleepwalking or ignoring it. Then more folks said okay, this is bad and we need to be supporting this cause. So I put it out on my own social media and I was like, 'hey, you know, Steel Smiling as a couple bucks to be able to support some folks'. I had no idea the amount of traction that it was going to get. It kind of went like lightweight 'Pittsburgh viral' kind of. I would say since then we've received maybe $300,000. So not like an endowment, but it was enough money in 18 months to show we needed to be thinking about how we can get this black mental health fund endowed, so that we have funds in perpetuity, because the need isn't going anywhere. It started as a GoFundMe page which is still out there. But we are like, reimagining that. So we're probably going to discontinue the GoFundMe here soon, and relaunch under a more professional fundraising platform. What do we need to do to get this kind of fund endowed so that people can still give to it individually, but there's some source of funding there in perpetuity.

Dan: Yeah. When you get there, make sure to keep us in the loop. I'd love to support any way we can and make sure that other folks, not just across Pennsylvania, across the nation, know that your services are available, and that they can make sure to amplify the amount of people who have access.

Julius: Thank you. We appreciate that. Absolutely.

Dan: And, and so when you think about de-stigmatization, either on a local level, or scaling outward across the state and then beyond, what challenges are y'all facing that you believe you have a good process to overcome? I'm really curious about the learnings that y'all have developed over the past few years and then create some impact.

Julius: Yeah, you kind of alluded to it a little bit earlier, Dan, around like how do we even measure the impact of reducing stigma? How does that look in terms of data and measuring? We've been working with trying to stretch our arms out and work with all different folks in the university space to figure out what tools and resources they have that they feel would be useful. So for example, we've been working with some doctoral students at University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. There's a mental health literacy tool we've been adapting and implementing to get some more information and data to help us to measure these things. The big challenge for us is around measuring the impact, right? We know we can say we had 20 People go through this training program, where we had 100 referrals this month that we connected to therapy. We have those raw numbers and data, but we know that there's like a larger story that also needs data that if we can encapsulate and tell that story to the general public, and show people that this isn't just Pittsburgh, this is Columbus, this is Milwaukee, this is, you know, any city in America with pockets of Black population. If we can get that right with some supporting data inform funding and form policy. It'll change the way that treatment and support are delivered. But it feels like we're trying to boil the ocean every time we do that, though. It feels like there's so much that we want to say and we're just trying to figure out like, what's, what's the one thing? What is the one sound bite that we need to just run with? We don't have it yet, but we are close to it. We don't have it just yet.

Dan: I'm curious to hear more about your origin story. Did you grow up thinking and talking about mental health?

Julius: I did to some degree. But, you know, it is definitely something that started to manifest itself when I went to grad school. And then what I did not share earlier is that one of my dear friends from my undergrad years at Pitt, was having a lot of struggles and challenges with his own mental health. And unfortunately, he passed away and died by suicide. I've had my own personal mental health struggles, and I've had those moments where I've had my own suicidal ideations. But when that happened, I found myself trying to figure out what did I miss, you know? And now he's not here, he's not alive anymore. So that for me was one of those moments, where I realized I need to really be more intentional about this work. It was like a sign almost, that said, like, 'Hey, you, you're on the right track, you're in the right field. Life is giving you these experiences, so that you can use your gifts, passions and experiences to help you elevate the work.'

Dan: Great. Well, Julius, thank you so much for joining us on the Link today. Super excited about following your progress from today and beyond. And please make sure to stay in touch and we will love to figure out ways that we can collaborate and support in the future.

Julius: Definitely Thank you, Dan, for the opportunity. I appreciate you and your time and all the great work you and your team are doing as well. Thank you'

Find More Julius:

• Julius on Instagram

• Steel Smiling on Instagram

• Steel Smiling Website

• Give to the Black Mental Health Fund

• Find more conversations with other culture creators on our YouTube Channel

Julius Boatwright c/o Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette