OUR COMMUNITY
One Thing I Wish
You Knew
Friendship Circle’s UMatter presents
its fourth annual, “One Thing I Wish
You Knew” event March 13 from
5-6:30 p.m. at Seaholm High School
Auditorium in Birmingham and
virtually via livestream.
The free in-person and virtual event
will focus on empowering individuals,
with a specific focus on teens, to
shatter the stigmas surrounding
mental health challenges.
“One Thing I Wish You Knew”
provides teens and the entire
community an opportunity to
highlight the vulnerability and
honesty of telling the people in
their lives what they wish they
know about their mental health
journey. Participants will also discuss
how their attempts to overcome
challenges have often felt isolating
and alienating.
The event features a diverse group
of speakers who will share their
own personal struggles and their
experiences working to overcome
them.
Speakers include Yaffa Klausner,
a senior at Farber Hebrew Day
School who has struggled with
self-worth, confidence and
mental health challenges; Nancy
Cutler, a mom, wife and pediatric
cardiologist who lost her son to
suicide; Merrik Michaelson, a junior
at Frankel Jewish Academy who
will share his unique experience of
suffering from an eating disorder
as a male; and Emma Feldberg, a
senior at Cranbrook Schools who
has struggled with mental health
throughout high school.
Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/
umatters-one-thing-i-wish-you-knew-
tickets-261853239087.
24 | MARCH 3 • 2022
F
arber Hebrew Day School
of Southfield held its first
UMatter Club meeting on
Jan. 25. UMatter operates within
Friendship Circle and is a program
focused on empowering teens to
shatter the stigmas surrounding
mental health challenges and sui-
cide.
Elissa Sternberg is the high
school’s social worker and oversees
the club along with senior Yaffa
Klausner, who’s in charge of the club
that meets on a weekly basis. Yaffa
says the group has about a dozen
members, and says she feels hon-
ored the club is getting recognition.
“We tackle mental health-related
struggles that students at our school
may face and ways in which the
school and other students could
accommodate them,
” Yaffa said,
adding that the club is busy at work
organizing the school’s UMatter
Week coming up in April. The
week will be dedicated to the many
themes of the UMatter program and
is filled with mental health-
related speakers, activities and, more
importantly, open conversations.
Yaffa says the goal of this year’s
UMatter Week is to make sure every
single person in the school knows
and feels they are being heard and
cared about and to not be ashamed
or scared to reach out for help if
they need to.
“The UMatter Club is a really
great opportunity to have open con-
versations about mental health and
how to improve our school’s overall
environment,
” said Daniella Weil,
class of 2022.
While topics may be tough, the
students say it’s a fun environment.
“I really appreciate and enjoy the
UMatter Club because it’s mixture
of discussing commonly ignored
topics surrounding mental health
while also being a fun experience for
everyone,
” said Nava Feldman, class
of 2025.
ABOVE: Farber students at the first meeting of their UMatter
Club on Jan. 25.
Friendship Circle program empowers
teens to shatter stigma of mental
health challenges.
RACHEL SWEET ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Farber Launches
First UMatter Club