Wellness symposium creates dialogue

ALBANY — If you ask Tony Sanchez what he likes to do in his spare time, his face will light up almost instantly as he mentions hanging out with his 5-year-old grandson.

One thing Sanchez is quite proud of is the fact that he has never once been under the influence when he has seen his grandson.

For 14 years, Sanchez has abstained from drugs and alcohol. On Wednesday, he served as moderator for the Transforming 2 Wellness Symposium, which was conducted at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church Family Center.

Sanchez and several others offered their testimonies. They shared how they’ve gone on to be loving and responsible grandparents, homeowners and overall productive members of society, all while encouraging others to stay the course.

Vendors set up Wednesday morning — the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Aspire, Phoebe Behavioral Health, Lake Bridge Behavioral Health and others. Those in attendance were able to collect goodies, along with information on topics such as overcoming substance abuse and coping with mental illness.

Prizes were raffled during lunch, then the crowd made its way to the sanctuary for a drum circle led by Michael Harper.

Sanchez said the purpose of the symposium was to highlight the strengths of the community while creating dialogue and encouraging networking.

“Recovery’s already happening here in Albany,” he said. “What we’re doing is creating opportunities for people to talk to each other in Albany so they can find out how they can support themselves and create sustainability.”

He added that many have already taken the first step to recovery, and that he wanted to make sure they knew they possessed what it took to press on.

“The fact that they’re here shows that,” he said. “The community’s already excited. They want to talk about it. People want to be heard and believed, not necessarily fixed.”

Within about an 90 minutes of the start of the symposium, the Family Center was filled to near capacity.

While an official headcount was not taken, Fonta High, a therapist at Aspire and a substance abuse coordinator, said more than 300 people pre-registered. She wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many of them were there within the first hour of the event.

“I think it’s going really well,” she said. “What’s happening so far is what we wanted to happen; people in recovery have an opportunity to exercise their voice, let the public see the other side of living with an illness, which is the wellness side that’s so often not heard or seen in the media.”

The event went into the evening and included a segment called Café Conversations in which discussions took place on what needed to be done in order to create a stronger recovery system within the community.