Mental Illness Awareness Week
Oaklawn will host its sixth Mental Illness Awareness Week on Tuesday, October 1, with special guest Ross Szabo, author and mental health advocate. Szabo will speak at a free breakfast at 7 a.m. geared toward anyone who works with youth and a community luncheon to raise funds for local mental health and addiction treatment services.
Tickets
Breakfast: Offered free in partnership with Saint Joseph Health System, space is limited and reservations are required. Register here.
Luncheon: Individual tickets are available for $50 each and proceeds benefit the Oaklawn Foundation. To purchase tickets for the event, click here.
Sponsorships
Sponsorship Levels are as follows, or view our Sponsorship Brochure.
All sponsors will receive special recognition in event brochure and a meet-and-greet with Ross Szabo before the event. In addition you will receive lunch seats commensurate with sponsorship level.
- Platinum: $15,000, (24 guests)
- Gold: $10,000, (16 guests)
- Silver: $5,000, (12 guests)
- Bronze: $2,500, (10 guests)
- Patron: $1,500, (8 guests)
- Host: $1,000, (6 guests)
- Event: $500, (4 guests)
- Community Partners: $250, (2 guests)
About Ross Szabo
Szabo’s journey with mental health is deeply personal. He was only 11 years oId when he visited his oldest brother in the psychiatric ward of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.
At age 16, Szabo himself was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with anger control problems and psychotic features. In his senior year of high school, he was hospitalized for attempting to take his own life and later that year he had to take a leave of absence from American University due to a relapse with bipolar disorder.
He returned to American four years later and graduated with a B.A. in psychology. He started speaking about his story with bipolar disorder to help others when he was just 17.
Ross served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Botswana from 2010 to 2012. When he got home from the Peace Corps, he saw that there were a lot of gaps preventing people from getting the vital mental health messages they needed, so he started a company to address those needs. His work in the youth mental health field earned him the Didi Hirsch Removing the Stigma Leadership Award and his advocacy work was entered into the Congressional Record by Congressman Patrick Kennedy.
He is the author of “Behind Happy Faces; Taking Charges of our Mental Health” and travels the world sharing his story of hope and recovery.