January 17, 2025 • 10 mins
I speak with State Senator Sharif Street about the transformative Welcome to Wellness Pop-Up, hosted in collaboration with One Day At A Time (ODAAT) and artist Shanina Dionna. Taking place on Saturday, January 25th, from 2 PM to 3:30 PM at 2532 N. Broad Street in Pennsylvania's 3rd Senatorial District, this event focuses on expressive arts healing. Attendees will gain tools and resources to manage stress and enhance emotional well-being. For more information, visit senatorsharifstreet.com or follow Senator Sharif Street on social media:
- X (formerly Twitter): @sensharifstreet
- Instagram: @sensharifstreet
- Facebook: Senator Sharif Street
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballad Morrow. Are you ready to
quit tobacco? We'll tell you about a campaign called If
I Can Quit, so can You, sponsored by the Philadelphia
Department of Public Health. And I'm delighted to share a
recording of a special day when a graduate of SEI
Phoenix Fact Experience, which is designed to deepen the connection
(00:22):
between incarcerated men behind the walls and of their kids.
I had the privilege of being present when one of
the graduates reunited with his kids after being released from Phoenix.
First Senator Shreef Street, One Day at a Time and
artist Shanina Diana are joining together for a transformative Welcome
to Wellness pop up on Saturday, January twenty fifth, from
(00:44):
two to three point thirty p m. Held in the
heart of Pennsylvania's third Senatorial District. This event focuses on
expressive arts healing, providing tools and resources to manage stress
and improve emotional well being, and joining us to tell
us more is State Senator Shreef Street. Thank you so
much for joining us today, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thank you for having us. I really appreciate you being
a voice in the community, and look, it's a chance
for us to talk about this wellness event. You know,
the surge in general said that some twenty five percent
of Americans last year we're suffering from a stress and
tension and actually anxiety disorder which is not just being
(01:25):
stressed out, but it's a clinical disease which is anxiety.
And over forty percent of young people. And it has
to do with a lot of things when lifestyle works
now with social media and people not being able to unplug,
and so I thought having some professionals come in and
talk about wellness, talk about just sort of the rudimentry
(01:45):
and mental health stuff would be really helpful.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I wonder if you can talk about how this
Welcome to Wellness pop up aligns with your vision of
the third Senatorial District.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Weok, we've made a point of helping people be healthy
across a board. You know, we have a we we
work on the African Amandaments of Fitness Walk in June
where people walk and take care of physical health.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We talk about our heart and lungs are moving our bodies.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We've talked about investing in hospitals where we put tons
of money into Temple in Einstein and supported the Black
Doctors Consortium. We've talked about recovery and supporting programs like
One Day at a Time, where I was charity board
for years, and so many other great dragon now called
recovery programs. But one of the things that Mel and
I talked about frequently is that.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
People just one day wake up on drugs.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
They are usually a whole set of stresses that contribute
to to their ultimately ending up on drugs, and so
and not everybody responds in the same way. Some people
just get high blood pressure, some people have other non
healthy ways of dealing with the stress and the anxiety
that accrues in their lives. This is a way of
(02:54):
sort of preventive care where people for many people who
are who could where people start experiencing anxiety disorders, and
maybe for people who are not don't have acute problems, but.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Who really are getting on the edge.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And so we're going to talk about the ways people
can address their wellness and become more centered.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I wonder if you can share more about the expressive
arts healing component and how it benefits constituents dealing with
stress and emotional challenges.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, there are a number of providers, and look, this
is relatively new to me. I'm a type a person
who sort of goes, goes, goes. My father's way of
raising me with when I was unhappy with something was
quote suck it up, but not being the sort of
the fifty year old guy who's taking advice from the
(03:44):
eighty year old guy to look at young people who
had better ways of looking at this stuff. Look, they
are creative ways, they're expressive ways. And I've been to
some of these programs, and the expressive arts have really
helped a lot of people relaxed. They help people address there,
they help people feel more centered, they help people in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And I think you got.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To come out and see it, because I will not
do it justice in explaining it. But I was just
willing away when I saw some of the techniques that
people had.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, well, certainly the arts contribute to our emotional well being.
And we have featured artists like Shanina Diana, who's going
to be playing a big, big role in this event.
Tell us a little bit more about her.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
She's involved in creative arts and has been doing it
as a part of an intentional program towards helping people
feel better about themselves. Though the arts have to be
experienced or at least described by somebody with greater creative
skills than me, because I guess there are poets who
can sort of use their words to bring to life
(04:49):
the experiences.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
But for me as a.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Guy, which is middle aged guy, as a lawyer, I'll
tell you what I can tell you is when you
experience it, you experience her arts, you experience the other
creative artists that are going to be here, Do you
understand because the impact it is the experience that impacts you.
It's the experience that allows you to understand how you're
going to feel better. These arts are something that need
(05:12):
to be experienced, and that's why we're bringing people out
so they can have a chance to experience it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Let's also pivot a little bit to the MLK Day
of Service opportunities and the Reverend Marguerite Handy breakfast. Marguerite
Handy was an amazing figure and mentor for me personally
in Philadelphia. Gave the biggest hugs. Definitely miss her presence
and I wonder if you can tell us more about
(05:37):
some initiatives on the MLK Day of services along with
that breakfast honoring Reverend Handy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It becomes sort of the week of service, or at
least the weekend of service and the weekend of remembrance,
because there are some events that are service events and
some that are remembrance events, and some.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Are a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
What I can tell you with Margaret Handy breakfast twenty
five years ago on New Year's Dead, then Mayor John
Street in his first term, working with Reverend Margaret Handy,
who was working for the city coordinating fig based services,
decided that they were going to go up to the
prisons on New Year's Day and will take clergy out
there to let people know we loved them and that
(06:16):
people could have a second chance and it no matter
what they've done in life, that they were still loved
and that there was a path to redemption, both spiritual
and also just personal, restoring their lives. Because most people
on State Road are coming home, it's not like going
to see lifers, and lifers can redeem themselves inside, but
these are people who are likely to really be returned
(06:37):
to our communities and within a year or two from
most folks, Reverend Handy organized a breakfast together people get
organized and talk about the issues, and not everybody that
once in the breakfast went up to to see the prisons.
And it is a tradition that we've continued for the
last twenty five years now. About seven or eight years
ago I moved it from New Year's Day to the
Saturday of MLK Weekend because doctor King wrote a letter
(06:59):
for Birmingham Jail he was and I thought some of
his the ideas of justice and fairness, it fit with
Mark Gurthy King Weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And it was still in January at the beginning of
the year, but not on the first day of the year.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And following that tradition for twenty five years in January,
a group of clergy and service providers and lots of
elected officials have gone up there.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I've been there every year since then.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
This some time after doctor Handy passed away went home
to Glory, we decided to name the breakfast that she
founded after her, and so people will gather and talk
about doctor King, but also talk about the legacy of
caring for those who are the least of these, those
who are locked up, and then a subgroup of that
group of people will go up because not everybody can
(07:46):
go up to the prisons. There's only so much capacity,
and we'll visit and talk with people on State Road,
explaining to them about turning their lives around. And so
this is now twenty five years. Time really has flown
that we've been going up there, and vice in the
prison populational State Road has shrunk. There are less people incarcerated,
(08:06):
and that while the prison population is shrunk, and.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Recently the murder rate is going down as well. And
so anytime we can.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Reduce the number of people that are in jail while
while crime is dropping as well, I think those are
win wins.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
There's last to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
When you talk about doctor King's message in his beloved community,
I think we have to think about the people who
are locked up. And so this is one of the
many things that will happen during King Weekend. But this
is a very special place for me and for the
clergy Black Clergy of Philadelphia. Many members come out with us,
Lots of other clergy groups are out and a lot
(08:42):
of service providers and many of my colleagues in elected office.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
As well well.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Anything that remembers Reverend Marguerite Handy is all right with me.
She was a very special person. But back to the
pop up, the Welcome to Wellness pop up Saturday, January
twenty fifth, from two to three point thirty where's it
going to be located and where do people go for
more information?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, for more information, you can always call my office
at two one five two two seven six one sixty one.
You can ask for you Asmina Richardson and she'll she'd
be happy to give you lots of information.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It's going to be held on Uh, that's it. It's a.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Uh, it's going to be held at one day at
a time, but that has multiple locations and we're going.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
To be on the twenty five hundred block of North
broad Street.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
The twenty five hundred block of North broad Street. Excellent. Yeah,
that is the pop up Welcome to Wellness pop up
Saturday the twenty fifth, two to three thirty pm, right
here in the heart of Pennsylvania's third sentatorial district and
it's State Senator Sharif Street. Thank you so much, Thank.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You, Lorena, thank you for all these years of being
the voice of the community.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Please, were welcome people.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Coming out and join us at the verand Handy Breakfast
or to join us for the Welcome to wellness pop up.
We appreciate certain people and thank you again for us
serving being a voice for folks throughout our community.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Have a blessed y.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Thank you so much. We'll have more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballad Morrow. Are you ready to
quit tobacco? We'll tell you about a campaign called If
I Can Quit, so can You, sponsored by the Philadelphia
Department of Public Health. And I'm delighted to share a
recording of a special day when a graduate of SEI
Phoenix Fact Experience, which is designed to deepen the connection
(00:22):
between incarcerated men behind the walls and of their kids.
I had the privilege of being present when one of
the graduates reunited with his kids after being released from Phoenix.
First Senator Shreef Street, One Day at a Time and
artist Shanina Diana are joining together for a transformative Welcome
to Wellness pop up on Saturday, January twenty fifth, from
(00:44):
two to three point thirty p m. Held in the
heart of Pennsylvania's third Senatorial District. This event focuses on
expressive arts healing, providing tools and resources to manage stress
and improve emotional well being, and joining us to tell
us more is State Senator Shreef Street. Thank you so
much for joining us today, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thank you for having us. I really appreciate you being
a voice in the community, and look, it's a chance
for us to talk about this wellness event. You know,
the surge in general said that some twenty five percent
of Americans last year we're suffering from a stress and
tension and actually anxiety disorder which is not just being
(01:25):
stressed out, but it's a clinical disease which is anxiety.
And over forty percent of young people. And it has
to do with a lot of things when lifestyle works
now with social media and people not being able to unplug,
and so I thought having some professionals come in and
talk about wellness, talk about just sort of the rudimentry
(01:45):
and mental health stuff would be really helpful.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I wonder if you can talk about how this
Welcome to Wellness pop up aligns with your vision of
the third Senatorial District.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Weok, we've made a point of helping people be healthy
across a board. You know, we have a we we
work on the African Amandaments of Fitness Walk in June
where people walk and take care of physical health.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We talk about our heart and lungs are moving our bodies.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
We've talked about investing in hospitals where we put tons
of money into Temple in Einstein and supported the Black
Doctors Consortium. We've talked about recovery and supporting programs like
One Day at a Time, where I was charity board
for years, and so many other great dragon now called
recovery programs. But one of the things that Mel and
I talked about frequently is that.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
People just one day wake up on drugs.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
They are usually a whole set of stresses that contribute
to to their ultimately ending up on drugs, and so
and not everybody responds in the same way. Some people
just get high blood pressure, some people have other non
healthy ways of dealing with the stress and the anxiety
that accrues in their lives. This is a way of
(02:54):
sort of preventive care where people for many people who
are who could where people start experiencing anxiety disorders, and
maybe for people who are not don't have acute problems, but.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Who really are getting on the edge.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And so we're going to talk about the ways people
can address their wellness and become more centered.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I wonder if you can share more about the expressive
arts healing component and how it benefits constituents dealing with
stress and emotional challenges.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, there are a number of providers, and look, this
is relatively new to me. I'm a type a person
who sort of goes, goes, goes. My father's way of
raising me with when I was unhappy with something was
quote suck it up, but not being the sort of
the fifty year old guy who's taking advice from the
(03:44):
eighty year old guy to look at young people who
had better ways of looking at this stuff. Look, they
are creative ways, they're expressive ways. And I've been to
some of these programs, and the expressive arts have really
helped a lot of people relaxed. They help people address there,
they help people feel more centered, they help people in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And I think you got.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
To come out and see it, because I will not
do it justice in explaining it. But I was just
willing away when I saw some of the techniques that
people had.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, well, certainly the arts contribute to our emotional well being.
And we have featured artists like Shanina Diana, who's going
to be playing a big, big role in this event.
Tell us a little bit more about her.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
She's involved in creative arts and has been doing it
as a part of an intentional program towards helping people
feel better about themselves. Though the arts have to be
experienced or at least described by somebody with greater creative
skills than me, because I guess there are poets who
can sort of use their words to bring to life
(04:49):
the experiences.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
But for me as a.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Guy, which is middle aged guy, as a lawyer, I'll
tell you what I can tell you is when you
experience it, you experience her arts, you experience the other
creative artists that are going to be here, Do you
understand because the impact it is the experience that impacts you.
It's the experience that allows you to understand how you're
going to feel better. These arts are something that need
(05:12):
to be experienced, and that's why we're bringing people out
so they can have a chance to experience it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Let's also pivot a little bit to the MLK Day
of Service opportunities and the Reverend Marguerite Handy breakfast. Marguerite
Handy was an amazing figure and mentor for me personally
in Philadelphia. Gave the biggest hugs. Definitely miss her presence
and I wonder if you can tell us more about
(05:37):
some initiatives on the MLK Day of services along with
that breakfast honoring Reverend Handy.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It becomes sort of the week of service, or at
least the weekend of service and the weekend of remembrance,
because there are some events that are service events and
some that are remembrance events, and some.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Are a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
What I can tell you with Margaret Handy breakfast twenty
five years ago on New Year's Dead, then Mayor John
Street in his first term, working with Reverend Margaret Handy,
who was working for the city coordinating fig based services,
decided that they were going to go up to the
prisons on New Year's Day and will take clergy out
there to let people know we loved them and that
(06:16):
people could have a second chance and it no matter
what they've done in life, that they were still loved
and that there was a path to redemption, both spiritual
and also just personal, restoring their lives. Because most people
on State Road are coming home, it's not like going
to see lifers, and lifers can redeem themselves inside, but
these are people who are likely to really be returned
(06:37):
to our communities and within a year or two from
most folks, Reverend Handy organized a breakfast together people get
organized and talk about the issues, and not everybody that
once in the breakfast went up to to see the prisons.
And it is a tradition that we've continued for the
last twenty five years now. About seven or eight years
ago I moved it from New Year's Day to the
Saturday of MLK Weekend because doctor King wrote a letter
(06:59):
for Birmingham Jail he was and I thought some of
his the ideas of justice and fairness, it fit with
Mark Gurthy King Weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And it was still in January at the beginning of
the year, but not on the first day of the year.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And following that tradition for twenty five years in January,
a group of clergy and service providers and lots of
elected officials have gone up there.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I've been there every year since then.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
This some time after doctor Handy passed away went home
to Glory, we decided to name the breakfast that she
founded after her, and so people will gather and talk
about doctor King, but also talk about the legacy of
caring for those who are the least of these, those
who are locked up, and then a subgroup of that
group of people will go up because not everybody can
(07:46):
go up to the prisons. There's only so much capacity,
and we'll visit and talk with people on State Road,
explaining to them about turning their lives around. And so
this is now twenty five years. Time really has flown
that we've been going up there, and vice in the
prison populational State Road has shrunk. There are less people incarcerated,
(08:06):
and that while the prison population is shrunk, and.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Recently the murder rate is going down as well. And
so anytime we can.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Reduce the number of people that are in jail while
while crime is dropping as well, I think those are
win wins.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
There's last to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
When you talk about doctor King's message in his beloved community,
I think we have to think about the people who
are locked up. And so this is one of the
many things that will happen during King Weekend. But this
is a very special place for me and for the
clergy Black Clergy of Philadelphia. Many members come out with us,
Lots of other clergy groups are out and a lot
(08:42):
of service providers and many of my colleagues in elected office.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
As well well.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Anything that remembers Reverend Marguerite Handy is all right with me.
She was a very special person. But back to the
pop up, the Welcome to Wellness pop up Saturday, January
twenty fifth, from two to three point thirty where's it
going to be located and where do people go for
more information?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, for more information, you can always call my office
at two one five two two seven six one sixty one.
You can ask for you Asmina Richardson and she'll she'd
be happy to give you lots of information.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It's going to be held on Uh, that's it. It's a.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Uh, it's going to be held at one day at
a time, but that has multiple locations and we're going.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
To be on the twenty five hundred block of North
broad Street.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
The twenty five hundred block of North broad Street. Excellent. Yeah,
that is the pop up Welcome to Wellness pop up
Saturday the twenty fifth, two to three thirty pm, right
here in the heart of Pennsylvania's third sentatorial district and
it's State Senator Sharif Street. Thank you so much, Thank.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You, Lorena, thank you for all these years of being
the voice of the community.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Please, were welcome people.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Coming out and join us at the verand Handy Breakfast
or to join us for the Welcome to wellness pop up.
We appreciate certain people and thank you again for us
serving being a voice for folks throughout our community.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Have a blessed y.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Thank you so much. We'll have more insight after these messages.
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