Suzy Ismail – Day of Dignity & Emotional Wellness Conference 2021

Bismillah AR Rahman Rahim. My name is Vanessa. And I work at the

Islamic Center of Passaic County. I am the Social Services Manager.

And we're very excited about today's event with Cornerstone and

Islamic Relief with the day of dignity. So we started the day out

with a day of dignity. And the idea of the day of dignity, which

was sponsored by Islamic Relief USA, was to uplift our communities

to recognize that regardless of what you're going through in life,

whether you are struggling in terms of housing, in terms of

finance, in terms of your marriage, in terms of refugee

status, in terms of difficulties that are ensuring that whatever

your struggle is, that we as a community have to come together to

uplift one another, and that we as a community need to ensure that we

all feel connected, that we all feel.

Treaties of peace and blessings to you all.

As doctors, you can save them but that was wonderful programs, loved

him to ICPC set up an entity, your pillar in our community in the

middle to inspiration and celebrating together. Hamdulillah

I am so inspired to be here today. When I tell you I'm inspired. I'm

inspired for so many reasons. I'm inspired by the beautiful

receptacle that you just heard about the love in a spa. There's

also the newsletters already in your family. I'm inspired by the

work that Dr. Susie does. I'm inspired by this community and

what the youth are doing. I'm inspired seeing these children in

the back coming here. I'm inspired by the resilience that I'm seeing

throughout these hallways. I'm inspired by the organization's

Michelle Obama that are out here servicing our community that are

standing together and what makes me feel so happy is that I'm able

to see something really slogan which is working together for a

better world I'm able to see that habitat come to life today

please join me Jamie here while German said men really want me to

come

along love this may have already happened yet in on a couple comm

center watts or Asha Mojo logic and yeah, we just need boys near

know what

Vince Vida Yama, Yama, Marathi benchmaster, Metro hon madressa,

annual al Qaeda, herbal hacia ha and our dev team sure Hi. So bad

had bad had she.

So ever since the flooding happened. They have been staying

at a hotel. They lost everything. They left everything behind all

their belongings, all their clothes. She also lost her son's

car was completely totaled and damaged. So they have been in the

hotel right now for two months. And she has no idea what is going

to happen next. My name is Melody Khalifa. I am a school counselor

in Westminster, New Jersey. I am also a licensed associate

counselor for the state of New Jersey. And I am here supporting

mental health, the clinical perspective. And from my

experience working with youth and their families, I think it's such

an important thing to end the stigma about mental health. I

believe that a lot of us are unsure. And we stigmatize mental

health because it's not something that we can see. I'm very happy to

be here at this particular event, and to support cornerstone in

everything that they've been doing for the community. Because I know

that there's so many the fabrics of our society, so many different

people need assistance in terms of their mental social well being

their spiritual well being. And Cornerstone is providing those

services trying to help people out with not just for the professional

experience, but at the same time with the background in in faith

and ethics and morals and principles. So it's really

something that's amazing. It's something that's needed in our

communities, and at so many different levels, from families

from marriage, from counseling from students that are seeking

help, going through addictions and problems. And this is why I'm so

happy to be here and so happy to be a small part of this

contribution.

Salam aleikum, this Imam Suraj Rojas, I'm letting you know that

I'm very happy to be at this conference today with my good

friend, Sheikh Qatar nanny, come to LA sister Susie smile as

invited me to this program. It's a wonderful program. Muslims have to

know about mental health, I'm here to promote it is necessary, we

shouldn't be afraid of it, we should embrace it.

Recognize mental health issues in ourselves and

in our community.

That's an embolic. And when I went to law, I'm Dr. Ray. And I'm

honored to be here with Hamdulillah. First and foremost,

with Dr. Susie and the staff with Cornerstone. We've had a great

reception or Hamdulillah. So many of the youth and the parents have

been so enthusiastic about our topics. First and foremost, today,

we talked about mental health and wellness and how that relates to

your identity and your spirituality. I had a session

earlier today with the youth about addiction. And they were so great,

they share so much total, so much of their their knowledge and the

stories of their experiences. Hamdulillah this has been such a

fruitful, ambitious day that's been filled with enjoyment, with

things outwardly and inwardly. And sometimes those struggles inward,

are even far greater than what anyone might experience on

outside. And sometimes people they struggle with finding the support

they need to overcome those challenges they find within

sometimes, actually, finding the courage to turn to someone to get

help for some of those struggles is a challenge. And so when I

introduce our esteemed guests for the evening, I wanted to share

with you a little bit about why we put this program together. And I

wanted to share a little bit about cornerstone the work that we do,

our purpose, our focus, and the importance of putting together

programs like the one that ICPC has partnered with us in order to

kick off today. Hi, my name is Jamie pitlick. And I'm a Masters

of Social Work student at Rutgers University School of Social Work.

And I'm here today volunteering at the day of dignity, which is an

event that we're having in the community in Paterson, New Jersey,

just to support the refugees that are in our community and to make

sure that they feel included and that they have the resources that

they need for them to feel supported. We have some different

speakers that are discussing wellness and mental health. And

then outside we have school supplies that we're giving away

backpacks, hygiene kits, teddy bears, and then some other

organizations here in the community that have information

about the services that they can provide to anybody who needs the

support. Let's just dive in

and know how Masha can

she came so we can get a better future and she really really was a

challenge for the kids.

I think we have to appreciate

that the most important opposite you will ever have is an article

says

it shouldn't be your

sponsor

said he thought that Sheffield

but in the absence of the strengths of our community belongs

in the absence of that reality. We have entities like cornerstone

that help us stand up a little bit more straight. You know, it's an

Hickmott with violet. Wisdom is the last property of a believer

and now whether they have a block that you know that wherever you

find it that is you have more preference to it. So go into a

place like Cornerstone disruption, wisdom. I don't know how to live

life, I can guarantee you even when we lose our loved ones we say

when we

face any challenge we say

Do we have any hardship?

So the big difference, and now it is five years but we were so good.

Our kids start school we start to start on our lives. We start our

job. We started to bring you our house because

same house for a long time. It was so good. The light was so good

until the flood when

The flood come is like damage. Everything in our life is damaged

our soul to damage our kids. Because everything does not look

like your home.

My name is Dr. Muhammad, the Imam of the Islamic Center of the safe

County we thank Allah subhanaw taala for this beautiful event

which was organized by cornerstone. Thank you very much

for your dedicated job. You are working for our community. We

can't Allah so has the IRA for having this great organization in

our Muslim community, to empower the family, to take care of our

youth to solve the problems of addiction, anxiety, stress, all

these prices. I think, we need you we need your work. We need your

efforts. So many faces so many individuals from the community,

different communities, we have people from New York people,

people from South Jersey and people from North Jersey, and

everywhere. So my religion always allowed us to gather together for

his sake and Christopher Levy and Crawford together and allow us to

uplift one another all of our initiatives. A huge thank you once

again to our incredible panelists to Imam Kalani, who was the

initial drive and the push when he called me when they said to me We

need a mental health conference ICPC and then come to learn that

seed was planted and Subhan Allah Allah azza wa jal has it written

for us to be able to accomplish something that is amazing. Is the

grace and allow something beautiful