We are so happy to be partnering with Aish Toronto, The Red Oak Centre, Relief, TannenbaumCHAT and NCSY for this event. The Jewish Family Institute is dedicated to bringing powerful educational opportunities, fun events and relevant resources on marriage, parenting, leadership and more. Our mandate is to use cutting edge modern psychology and Jewish wisdom to bring awareness, support and information on common themes, issues and topics in the Jewish community and beyond.
This conference is an outgrowth of that original mandate as well as a personal project in honour of the director of the JFI Ellie Bass’s sister, Tanya Stoker z’tl" who passed away in 2003 after suffering from Bi-Polar Disorder for over 10 years.
There is a mental health crisis in teens and first year college students of massive proportions right now. High school and university resource providers are overwhelmed and tapped out. Many reasons and much research is going into understanding what is happening with our teens, but what can we start doing about it right now? Educate ourselves, give our teens tools to deal with and understand their inner environment and start talking about this imminent threat to our future with our families, our experts and our community.
Our hope is that this conference brings us all together to learn and find avenues of support in our community, and that we all leave with a greater body of knowledge and connections within and outside of the Jewish community that will foster health and address acute issues of mental health in our lives and the lives of our youth.