SIDNEY – "Be Here" is hosting Johnny Crowder, a national mental health speaker, at the Sidney Elks Lodge, 6 p.m. Saturday, October 21. 

A chili and cinnamon roll dinner will be provided for a free-will donation. Doors open at 5 p.m. and Crowder is scheduled to start speaking at 6 p.m. His program is designed to provide audiences with self-care tools and mental health strategies.

"Personal growth is tricky. So, the term growth implies millions of tiny, thankless steps, which sucks. And the term personal implies nobody can take them for you, which also sucks. But, if we consistently interrupt our old thought patterns with new ones and we resist the urge to judge ourselves for how long this process takes we won't waste our lives waiting for a eureka moment that might never come," Crowder said in a previous talk.

Crowder is the founder and CEO of Cope Notes, a science- and text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to healthcare systems, employers, government agencies and people in nearly 100 countries worldwide. 

He is also a mental health advocate, Certified Recovery Peer Specialist and suicide survivor. 

After more than a decade in the trenches battling his own mental health and abuse demons, Johnny Crowder has emerged as one of America’s exciting new voices on resilience, support, and people-first leadership. He is a 30-year-old suicide/abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, Billboard-charting musician, mental health and sobriety advocate, and the Founder & CEO of Cope Notes®, a text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries around the world.

But in the years leading up to these incredible leaps in advocacy, every day was a battle against schizophrenic hallucinations and suicidal ideation. After a lifetime of resisting professional care and shying away from sharing his story, Johnny’s curiosity flowered, and the healing slowly began.

Armed with 10+ years of clinical treatment, a psychology degree from the University of Central Florida, and a decade of peer support and public advocacy through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Johnny created Cope Notes in 2018. The award-winning startup continues to gain worldwide attention and adoption for its innovative approach to helping people of all walks of life build mental wellness on a daily basis.

Be Here is a local non-profit organization designed to stand against suicide. It’s mission statement is to “support our community, Be (t)here as a resource and Be (W)here we are needed."