Sophomore “Alleviating Anxiety” with new mental health organization

Alleviating Anxiety Logo

“Alleviating Anxiety” Logo

By Jamison Townsend, Staff Reporter

When sophomore Kai Lloyd saw that students at school were struggling with anxiety and mental health, they wanted to help out by showing that one can alleviate anxiety through methods like art.

“I saw a need in our community Grosse Pointe schools,” Lloyd said. “I saw how kids weren’t having any mental health help at all; everyone was struggling.”

Because of this, Lloyd started “Alleviating Anxiety Thru Art,” an organization dedicated to bringing awareness to self-care and positive mental health. 

Lloyd said the organization started when they saw that many students were struggling with mental health. Specifically, they were inspired by one of their friends, whose family was going through a rough time taking care of their own mental health.

“They didn’t have any mental health care and they didn’t know anything about it,” Llyod said. “They were just struggling without any information.”

Instead of just sending them resources to figure out everything by themselves, Lloyd said they knew they had to help in any way they could. “Alleviating Anxiety Thru Art” has held workshops at the Grosse Pointe Library, where participants can manage stress through creating works of art. 

In the future, Lloyd hopes to do great things for their community with this program, starting small and soon spreading everywhere.

“My goal is to have some printables put in school and then hopefully across America,” Lloyd said. 

According to Lloyd, many students have seemed to benefit from their effort by learning new ways to handle stress. One of these students is junior Apollo Jason, who is a volunteer and participant for the program.

The organization reached out to Jason personally and he said he thought it would be a great idea to help in any way he could. 

Lloyd (right) receiving an award from the organization “Harper Woods Soup.”

“I work with Kai as a volunteer and a journalist for the company. Working with them has given me a sense of community,” Jason said. “I genuinely feel like we can make a difference in the community.” 

Lloyd believes it’s important for people to educate themselves about all perspectives of an issue they care about in order to help as many people as they can.

“Make sure you do your research because sometimes you look within yourself and think you know what’s going on with the issue, but then you’ll hear from someone else and they have a completely different perspective on it,” Lloyd said.  “As well as when you’re well informed, or you try to learn. You learn what’s going on with anybody else.”

 

Contributing: Emma Sanderson