Suzy Ismail – Day of Dignity & Emotional Wellness Conference 2021
![Suzy Ismail](https://artwork.muslimcentral.com/suzy-ismail-150x150.jpg)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
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