Hello, friends and fellow neighbors.
Thank you for joining us on this beautiful day here in Western Pennsylvania.
And joining me today is Julius Boatwright. He is a remarkable person.
He is the founder and CEO of still smiling,
a nonprofit organization which he will tell you about Julius.
Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to be with us.
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
All right, Julius.
So, uh our first question is uh what is the uh mission of a steel smelling like?
Can you maybe explain to our viewers like uh what it is and what you guys do?
Sure. So our mission is, is really simple.
Uh It's to bridge the gap between black community members here in Pittsburgh,
uh and beyond
and connect them to mental health resources through education,
advocacy and awareness.
And we, we think about our larger vision, uh
which is a 10 year vision.
We want to connect with every black person in
Allegheny County and at the very least make an
attempt to connect them with some type of mental
health resource that improves their quality of life.
And we love to do that by 2030.
We know that it's a, it's a lofty goal and it's a lot of work.
Um But we, we, we feel that we have the team, we have the community
uh behind us and we just have a lot of
people who are supporting us and helping us move that,
that mission and that vision forward.
So, are you in year one of the, a 10 year mission?
Yes. So we're in year five of our existence.
Uh We'll be, we'll be five years old in December,
but this is year one of the 10 year vision.
Uh
OK. So uh uh what was the purpose of uh still smiling uh when you were starting out?
Yeah. So, um I was working as, as a therapist.
Um and I was doing these uh in home therapy visits with
families and um to make a long story short when I was,
I would leave those sessions and I just felt like something was missing,
you know, like there was more work that could be done.
Um So that was like, really when I was working as a therapist,
one of the things that really motivated me to want to do more is that I felt like
why isn't anyone doing more with these families? Like why are we going in for,
you know,
a few weeks at a time and working to help
them get connected with resources and teach them different skills.
And then we just kinda, we just kind of leave basically, you know,
we don't provide any support to them after, after the fact.
So that, that didn't really sit well with me. I felt like,
you know, people needed to be doing more around education,
around helping people advocate for their mental health needs.
Um and really just raising awareness for mental health.
So, um that was something that really,
I guess motivated me to want to do the work.
Um I am, the second thing is that I'm 37 right now
and uh I don't,
I've never gotten like a formal diagnosis
uh
of, of mental illness,
but I know that,
you know,
since I was a teenager,
I know that I've dealt with uh with anxiety.
I know that I've struggled with the depression.
Um I've had those times where I'm like,
you know,
the world would be better off if I wasn't here sort of thing.
And um
I say that because like now
from my teenage years to now
I've gotten better at, at coping,
I've gotten better at like
not letting that define me and not letting that just be who I am.
So now I know that OK, I deal with these things and I, I struggle with them,
but I can still push through
and I can still thrive and live a, live, a happy, like healthy life.
So I'm very passionate because of my own personal experiences. Um And
about
six years ago,
uh one of my good friends
from college, uh, passed away and died by suicide.
And that was, um, at the time, you know, for
at least three or four years after it happened, I, I struggled with it a lot.
You know, I, I asked myself, um,
what did I miss? You know, I blame myself a lot. What, what could I have done to,
to help him or support him?
And now I have a different perspective on it.
I'm more so asking myself, you know, what,
what can I do now to support more people who might be
having similar thoughts? Like how can I
help to,
to provide education or provide support or provide resources to
people who might be struggling with their own mental health?
So
again, in the first three or four years after it happened, I was like,
why, you know, why, why me, why did it happen to him? And,
and, and more, more so than that
his family, you know, his loved ones? I, I just, I felt so much
pain for them. I know that I could never feel the level of pain that they felt,
but I still was like,
this was, you know, I considered him to be a brother
to me.
And um so really those, those three things um
thinking about his legacy and how to honor it,
thinking about my own lived experience and what I've
gone through with as it relates to mental health.
And then just knowing that
the mental health system needs to be
better
to, to put it, you know, sim simply put it like
those three things are, what,
what kind of motivate me and have motivated me um over the years.
And so we now I I'm more,
I think the biggest motivation is like,
like leaving a legacy
and really not, not a, not a legacy for me,
but like a legacy to where when people think
of still smiling, they think of like
healthy people that are happy that are, that are
that find strength and and resilience in their,
in their challenges and people that are like
mental health is cool. You know, it's cool to talk about mental health.
It's cool to get that support. So that's, that's the,
the legacy that I would love for the organization
um to leave behind
in, in people's lives.
You know, I'm sure if your friend was here today,
I'm sure he would be very proud of you.
For what? For all the amazing things you and still smiling have done.
I kind of wanted to um
go back to maybe something that you said about the mental health system,
wishing it could be better.
Like what ways do you think the mental health system can be better?
So I think for one
when we talk about access,
so access could mean a number of different things.
So access for some people could be.
Do I have transportation?
Like and then uh if the answer to that question is no, then it's like, well,
how do I get to
my therapy appointments? Do, do I, am I taking the bus? Am I taking an Uber?
Um, am I driving a, a friend's car or my car?
And then it's like, well, how much does that, does that cost?
Can I afford it? Right. So
access and that, that simple term, but access can also mean um
around, around the affordability, right? So it's like
if I do have insurance,
can I afford the $25
payment that it's gonna be once a week or every other week?
Because for some people, 25 bucks is not a lot of money, but for others,
$25 a week is a ton of money.
So access around affordability
and um access
uh around um
you know, if people feel like
they're gonna get the right kind of support when they access the system.
So for example, if, if I'm, if I'm like
ready to go to therapy and I,
and I have transportation and I have the right insurance and I have money to do it
and I go to my therapy session, but I don't feel like
my therapist like really understands me or really gets me, then I might,
I might be like, well,
this doesn't really feel like a good fit for me. So I don't,
I don't know that I wanna do mental health therapy anymore. So really
being able to
help to bridge that gap for people and,
you know,
making sure people have the financial resources and the
uh uh
if, if they
in a position to have insurance to be able to support with those costs,
um making sure people have a chance to actually meet and
talk to some of the therapist and get to know them
before they dive head first into therapy.
Um And uh
you know,
supporting with some of those other financial barriers because if someone
doesn't drive a car and they can only get there by bus,
uh and they have to pick, well,
should I use this money for a bus fare or should I use it for
childcare?
They might pick childcare over bus fare to get to therapy. So
how do we get to a point where people
have the financial resources to actually be able to afford
um to see a therapist or
uh a psychiatrist or, or any other mental health professional.
Uh Do you guys um provide any of these uh services with uh with uh steel smiling?
We do. So we just recently
launched uh a fundraiser and all of the money is
used to help people uh pay for mental health therapy.
And sometimes we have people that say like, hey,
I need help, you know, getting there. So a bus pass would be nice or
um
you know,
I have another emergency financial need that's
like negatively impacting my mental health.
So if someone's on the verge of getting like kicked out of their apartment or their,
or their home
because they don't have enough money to, to, to pay their rent or their mortgage,
then we try to access some emergency financial support because
although that's not therapy, we know that,
that if you're worried about getting kicked out that can,
you know, kinda
play negatively on your mental health. Uh But we, yes, we have
uh a
pot of money of funding available. So if someone says, hey,
I wanna see a therapist but
um I can't afford the co-pays with my insurance or I just don't have insurance,
then we have funding to be able to say, you know what,
um we'll work to get you connected with the
therapist and whenever you have to make that payment,
just let us know and we'll pay
that mental health professional for you because we don't,
the last thing we want is people worrying about how they're gonna pay for it
and
um we don't want that to stop them from getting therapy.
Ok.
Uh uh So,
uh what are ways that you guys like promote the
importance of a mental health around the Pittsburgh community.
So we do uh a number of different things. Um We do what's called a
digital mental health and wellness uh sessions
and also digital mental health and healing sessions.
So we're actually having one tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. On
our uh it'll be broadcast lab on our Facebook page.
And it's basically just to introduce more people to mental
health um to have conversations about mental health and wellness
and just to, to destigmatize it.
And also, you know, right now because we're like,
some people are quarantined and some people are back to work.
But it's like not everybody is like out and about.
So we still want to do stuff digitally so that people can, can take advantage of.
Um we also have a
mental health uh workforce development program.
So for somebody who wants to
um
get paid to go through a mental health training program and potentially become a
uh a peer.
Um So a peer certified, a certified peer specialist
or a certified recovery specialist, that's like those are um
jobs within the mental health field that people can do.
So we are uh we have that workforce development program that's literally
training folks if they want to get into the mental health field.
Um
What else do we do?
We're constantly partnering
with people. So if anybody is looking for like a
mental health training for a school or for students or for their staff,
we do different
different workshops and trainings
and then we also do
consulting as well. So if someone says, hey,
like we want to actually design a
mental health program for our students or for our our workers.
Can you guys help us like
design that program? We also uh do consultations
uh with, with different organizations as well.
Uh What,
what do you think?
Steel Smiling's biggest impact has been on the Pittsburgh community?
Wow.
Um
huh.
I
think getting people to a point where
they, they understand that it's ok to not be ok.
So we've had,
you know, every day someone reaches out and they're like,
what you guys are doing is so inspirational
and I never would have shared this with anyone before, but like,
I'm struggling with depression or my mom is dealing with anxiety or
you know, my grandma like, you know, she's struggling because the family isn't,
not, nobody's going to visit her anymore.
So people start to like
share their own personal stories about mental health
and then from there
they're like, hey, can you guys provide some support for me?
And then, oh by the way, like my grandma and my mom need support too.
So just, just hearing people's stories and people that are like,
that have never talked about mental health before.
They're now opening up and talking about it has just been um
it's been awesome to see that.
Oh
Yeah, it does.
It,
it does seem awesome and that is so inspirational to me.
Oh So what have you personally,
what have you gotten the most
out of uh still smiling so far?
Mm
Seeing that,
you know, we're almost at our five year anniversary
and
now it's to the point where
like I don't have to be doing all the work.
Like I don't,
I don't have to always be talking about still smiling or mental health
because now there are other people that are like, hey,
like mental health is cool and still smiling can help you with this.
So now it's almost like
I know that at the end of the day,
if
the universe
guides me in a different direction and I'm,
I don't know if I
become a politician or I wanna
become a teacher or
I wanna
do something different with my life in five years or 10 years or 15 years,
I think still smiling will still live on,
you know, it, it will still be this mental health organization
um in the city and now it's growing and now we're starting to get like,
people from all across the country are reaching out to us.
So that's I like,
I never would have like
I talked about that in the beginning.
I'm like, hey, it would be nice if like,
we worked with people across the country and then people would be like,
what are you talking about? Like, how like, how are you gonna do that? Right.
And so now it's like,
people are like
Texas and Florida and Missouri are like
contacting us for like therapy and like trainings and we're like,
is this real, like, is this really happening? And it's, it's real. So
I, I guess the thing I'm most proud of is that
I know now that
the community can just take it and run with it. And like, I,
it's, it's there. It's like in the universe, right?
It's existing now and I don't have to,
I don't, I don't need to be with it for the rest of my life.
And that's, that's just cool to think that, like,
I was blessed enough to be a part of creating something that
I can
be called to do something else.
And then this other thing,
hundreds of other people can still take this other
thing and like run with it like that.
That's just really cool to think about.
So what is the future of steel
smiling? Like do you wanna reach out
like to that national level that you just mentioned or do you wanna stay locally?
Yeah. The goal, the goal is, is uh
we haven't written this down on paper yet, but I would love to see.
Well, let's just start nationally, just start there
uh from my mind because I, my creative mind goes in a million different places. But um
so we're starting to have more national
um connections and more people reaching out.
So now we can actually see.
All right, we're doing work in the city,
we're doing work throughout Allegheny County
and more neighborhoods. We have different programs and trainings happening.
And now all we need to do is like
get that all up and running throughout the county. And then we can say like, OK,
or, and then also throughout the state
and then we can say, all right, well,
maybe we can try this in like Columbus,
Ohio or maybe we can try still smiling and like uh
Indianapolis or
um
I don't know
Atlanta, right? Like in these different locations.
But I think we're, we're probably
a few years before we can
do that. We probably probably 3 to 5 years before we can do that.
OK.
Yeah. You know, you mentioned
on a TED talk that you did a few years ago that one of the
techniques I guess you like
to um use in
regard to mental health is to just
simply
listen.
And um
Mr Rogers was very adamant about that, you know, about the importance
of listening, like especially with,
with your Children.
So like why is listening um important when you deal with uh mental health?
Mm
I think that,
hey, I'm so glad you asked that because it, it, it,
it's easy to like lose track of that especially now
like there's so much going on in the world and like
it's almost like everybody right now is like
everyone wants
you to listen to them,
but like nobody is really listening to each other.
Everyone's just like, no listen to me like no listen to me
and for me even beyond, you know, the mental health work, like if you don't,
if we're not listening to each other,
then we're never gonna gonna know
how to best support, to support
each other.
So Right. It's one thing to listen and just kind of go OK. Sure. And then
after you get done spilling everything out or,
or
hinting at what you need and I'm just like,
ok, let me tell you about me now. It's like, wait a minute, like you just,
you just told me your whole life story and
laid all this stuff out and, and,
and that what you really created is an opportunity for me
to support you
and to help you. I, I
may not be able to help you all the way,
but maybe at least I can say, wow, you know, it sounds like
you're dealing with a lot.
It sounds like
um
you know,
you
want some support
and just really like reflecting back so listening to people and
then reflecting back to them because then someone will say,
wow, like I'm really glad that you said that you're the first person that like
truly showed me that
you were actually listening to what I
was saying because oftentimes like people say stuff
and then we go into like trying to fix it mode
and the person is like,
what are you doing? Like that's not even what I was talking about.
That's not even what I need, you know. So really listening
uh to, to me is
listening
is everything like it's, it's the,
it's the heart of
building relationships and connecting with people, like, it's, to me it's the most
simple and profound thing you can do for another human being is just listen to them
during these
unfortunate times
in our nation.
You know, like, how does mental health play a role in the situations, you know,
about, about race that, that um
our nation is facing right now?
I think it's, it's,
you know,
I think it's really an opportunity for um
for like, real change,
you know, and what I mean when I say that is like,
it's like
everyone's, everyone's like paying attention now, right? Everyone is like,
um
you know, how can I help? What do I need to do? And granted there are still some
people that aren't there
that are still trying to process and deal with things
and um
that's just, that's life, you know, you, you,
we're gonna have that forever and ever.
I just think that right now there are, there are a lot of people, uh
you know,
did, did Mr Rogers say, look for the helpers or am I making that up?
That
was a
quote from Mr Rogers. He got that from his mother because his mother
used to tell him that.
Yeah. So, you know, that's, that's like,
I feel like that's what's happening right now,
right? And so
with everything that's happening, all of the
events around the country,
I think it's creating an opportunity for people to really, like come together
and really be like, hey, look,
we know that this is, this is a challenge, this is a problem. It's a major issue.
And what can we do
for each other and together to be able to, to,
to change this? Right. We're not, we're not gonna have all this change overnight.
You know, that's, that's, that's impossible,
but to be able to talk about
it and to, um,
to listen
right, to really listen and say, and not just say, well,
that person is doing this because of ABC.
It's like,
well, why, why not just listen, like give them an opportunity to tell you
why they're feeling,
thinking,
acting, behaving, responding a certain way
and know that, you know,
it may not be
the way that you're comfortable with, right?
There are certain people that do or say things to me
or do or say things in my presence. And I'm like,
wow, I,
I'm,
I, that didn't sit well with me,
but
it's not my job to then judge that person and say, well,
you did that the wrong way or you need to be doing it
this way is to just always ask the question when we talk about,
um, trauma informed care. It's not about
uh
what the person did,
right? It's not like why did you do that?
Right?
Because you, you, you hear parents say that a lot to their kids, why would you do that?
Like, why did you do that thing?
And
a
better question to ask is like,
what
is happening or what hap could have happened to this person
that's making them behave in this way, right? So now you're, you're not saying why?
Because you say why did you do that? And the person says, well, like
I was, I was hungry,
you know, I, I wanted something to eat. So that, that's why I did it.
And it's like, well,
when you ask the, what, like what,
what, what happened to you that influenced you to be hit to, to, to
take the food off of someone else's plate. It's like, well,
you know,
I grew up and um
I ate,
I don't know,
bread
for dinner for like three years or whatever the case may be. So that person
has
in their upbringing,
the relationship they have with food and the lack of food and
the fear around not being fed or not being able to eat.
So now they're in a position where they see food and they're like,
I need to survive. Like IIII I have to behave, I have to
take that food. You know, that that's a really
super basic analogy, but like always asking
what happened to this person and not just pointing the finger and saying why,
because
sometimes people don't even know why.
You know, there's so much
anxiety and
sadness and
um despair in people that
they do things that they wouldn't normally do.
Um And we, we have to be
willing to listen and say
I know that you're not your behavior like you,
you did something but that doesn't mean that you're a bad person
because you did that thing.
Ok. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing.
I wanna shift gears a little bit now.
So um have you guys been up to anything uh in the wake of a
of a COVID-19?
So we did, um
I mentioned this a little earlier. We did our
digital Mental Health and Wellness series.
So what we were doing every uh week,
we were posting different like mental health and wellness videos and chats
uh with different people.
So we had like different special guests and mental health professionals
and we had like yoga instructors do videos that we would share so people could do
the yoga videos with their kids and with their families because the,
and the purpose was we realized like, OK, if everyone's gonna be
physical
distancing and quarantine,
you can't make it to the gym, you know, you might not be able to go see your therapist
and, and you're at, you're at a point where there's more stress and more anxiety.
So we wanted to provide some form of an outlet or support or, or,
or mental health education for people to do
um on their own devices, wherever, wherever they, they may may be.
So we started that literally at the beginning.
Uh And like,
I don't know, maybe the second or third week of March
and we did that all the way through the end of May.
And now that we're like, um
we're in green, but there's still some people that are still working from home.
We're doing monthly
digital mental health and, and wellness
events. So
on a Wednesday, every month,
we're gonna do like some sort of online mental health and
wellness discussion where we bring in uh mental health and wellness professionals
and you could tune in live to it or you can come back and
watch it because it'll always be on our Facebook page.
So we, we've been like,
like we're
again, even though we're in green, we're like, still in the pandemic.
You know, it's still, the COVID-19 is still here.
People are still getting sick, people are still dying,
people are still working from home.
So we're still going to do slowly but surely start to do
in person stuff.
Um But we're also going to offer the online
stuff because there are still a lot of people
that are, are, are at home or not back to work yet.
OK. Any um timetable on when the in person stuff is uh going to begin.
Um So we're, we're already starting to do like
hybrid meetings for our classes. Now. Those are, that's just like, um
you know, that's not an open community event.
It's just a class that we already have going through. So
some of them with their uh you know, they have their protective their mask,
their gloves, their sanitizer and they're gonna do physical distancing,
they're gonna meet in person
and then the other half, they're gonna continue to do zoom
in, in digital meetings. But uh for open community events,
I, I
think we're gonna try to explore the, what the fall
might look like. Right. So in the fall, we've got
Suicide Awareness Month in September,
there's World Health Month in October.
Um
and then our
anniversary is in December.
So
I would love to be able to do something in one of those months. Um We just,
you know, we're, we're really just waiting to see what happens with COVID.
Um But I think if,
if we can have the right type of setup and,
you know, the right type of precautions maybe in one of those months.
Um But over the summer, we'll, we'll continue to do these
hybrid
in person and zoom classes with our, with our current class.
And then we'll still offer all the digital um
digital
experiences that two questions are, are ones that are related to live like Fred.
So the first question is, uh what does it mean to you to
uh
live like Fred?
Hmm.
Wow.
Um
I think it's about
like every human being has
goodness in them.
You know, I know there's
some people are like, well, what about
like people that do like really horrific things
to, to other human beings?
II, I don't think that anybody is like innately bad, like, bad, you know, I don't, I,
I personally don't believe that.
I think that we all have
some, something in here
that's like,
ok,
I, I don't know what to call it. Like you're saying, like,
it's like
there's always good in people. Is that what
you said?
And, and, and, and as, right, as an extension of that
when you talk about live, like, Fred, it's like,
how do we, how do we find that
in people? Like, how do we look at people who
come from different backgrounds who
someone might be saying to you?
I don't like you.
Like,
I hate you.
I,
you know, I wish the worst for you. And it's like,
as difficult as it is like,
is it possible to find goodness in people who, who, who, who hate, openly hate you?
Um,
some people don't agree with that
and that's ok.
I just think that,
you know,
I, I've gone through a lot of like, uh,
personal and professional and like spiritual development
programs and trainings and I really think that,
and we, we talked a lot about, like, having courageous conversations
so to be able to have a conversation with somebody
who, you know, doesn't like
you or they don't like your friends or they don't like your beliefs.
So they don't agree with your values. Like
those are the kind of conversations that I, that I wanna have.
Um, and, and, and in living like Fred, it's like,
how do I find goodness in that, in those conversations? Um,
it's exhausting, it's tiring to do that. Right.
You have to, you gotta, you gotta put on your armor, you gotta pour a lot out.
But I love when I have those conversations and at the end of them you're like,
wow, like,
you know, I feel like I know this person better and
I don't,
I don't feel fearful or angry or hatred
based on their fear or anger or hatred that they have toward me.
And even at the end of the conversation, if they're still like, you know,
I'm still unsure about how I feel about you or your,
your friends or your family. It's still like,
OK,
it's like I'm,
I only know how to live with love. Like so iii I can only give you love like I, I'm not,
I can't, I don't wanna return hatred with hatred. Like I just wanna,
you give me 11 scoop of hatred. I'm gonna give you two scoops of love. Like I,
that's just how I'm, how,
how I operate.
Yeah. You know, I, I love that.
You said that Julius, you know, because I feel that that is,
that was something that I think Mr Rogers, you know, always wanted to teach,
you know, that
knowing that way, you should always try to find the loving people, you know, and I,
I love that.
All right. And then our final question is uh what makes a snappy new day for you.
Julie is just what makes a happy, uh, feel good day for you.
So, I just got these,
my wife just got these for me.
What is it?
Oh,
I'm so,
I'm so happy about these. I have a pair of, just like those.
I used to wear them in high school.
I've been like,
so for the past, like,
I don't know, forever years I've been like,
I need some spa.
I need some spies.
Like, and I, I, she just got me some slides.
Um, because I, I'm, I'm a big, uh,
it's either dress shoes or tennis shoes.
Like,
it's not slides or sp
so now I'm just like it literally, like, I feel like,
I don't know how to describe it. It's really weird, but I'm really,
I guess, I guess, uh, uh,
a great parish
shoes, right?
Do you think even thinking about Mr Roger, I, he was all,
would always come in and wouldn't he, like, change his shoes?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, he would change, he had dressed shoes on
and he would change into, like, into, like, blue shoes. Yeah.
Kind of like the one you showed us, you know, and he did that to symbolize as,
like a comforting way,
you know, like
knowing that, like, it's not gonna be intense. Like this is something that
should, like, he was pretty much saying the Children, like, you can watch this,
it's gonna be comforting it's gonna relax you.
Yeah, that, that's it. Like,
you know, it,
it,
now with everything that's happening
and this is the,
this is the, you know, the final thought that I'll give every, like
everyone is stressed up, like everybody's
like,
you,
you, you can't find a human being on the planet and you're like,
are you not stressed or anxious?
Like they're gonna be one or the other, right? Or both?
So,
any way that we can bring peace or calm and, or love into people's spaces
that, that brings me joy right now, like however to do that.
And for me right now it's, it's rocking these shoes
and not having to wear like my seven year old like
tennis shoes that I'm like, all right, I'm probably gonna throw these away now
because I got some uh weight now and now you need to throw those away now.
Yeah. Yeah, it's uh it, it feels good. So, um
yeah, you know, just um
the simple things, the simple things, you know, bri bring me that kind of joy,
man. Julius. Um
Thank you so much for uh taking some time out of your day to talk to me.
You know, I really enjoyed our conversation. I love everything that you do with the
Steel City smiling. Uh We we will make sure to put links down below.
Um If you would like to find out more about Steel City smiling.
So Julius, thank you so much. For taking some time out of your day.
And we, and I wish you nothing but the best with Steel City smiling.
Sure. Thank you. I appreciate it.