Sage Exchange

SAGE Exchange is a dynamic space where we sit in conversation with visionary leaders, organizers, funders, creatives, and culture-shapers who are advancing work that directly impacts Black women and girls.

Next Sage Exchange

A Sage Exchange Series Mental Health in Practice (2 PART SERIES)

The work of building a more just world for Black girls and women is important, urgent, and — if we are being honest — heavy.

Those of us in nonprofits and philanthropy know this firsthand. We show up for our communities, our participants, our grantees, and our missions every single day. And too often, we do it while quietly carrying the weight of secondary trauma, organizational stress, and the particular exhaustion that comes with doing equity work inside systems that were not built for us.

Mental Health in Practice is a two-part Sage Exchange series led by Black Girls Smile — a national leader in culturally responsive mental health education and capacity building. For over a decade, BGS has worked at the intersection of mental health, girlhood, and community-based practice, and they are bringing that expertise directly to Black women working in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

This series is for those who work in the field, and for advocates working to make mental health support more equitable, more practical, and more sustainable within their organizations.

Session 2 — Rooted to Rise: Building a Culture Where Your Team Can Actually Thrive
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 | 1pm EST

We ask our teams to hold space for young people navigating trauma, mental health challenges, and complex life experiences — often with small staffs, limited resources, and expanding program demands. But who is holding space for them?

Staff wellbeing is not a bonus. It is foundational to participant wellbeing. In this second session, Black Girls Smile leads a candid, practical conversation about what it looks like to build organizational cultures and internal systems that genuinely sustain the people doing this work. We’ll move beyond self-care talking points and into the real work of translating wellness values into structures that protect your team and strengthen your mission over the long haul.

No jargon. No performance. Just honest, grounded strategies from people who understand this work from the inside out.

Session 01 — From Awareness to Action: Embedding Mental Health Into the Work
Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | 1pm EST

Many organizations talk about mental health but fewer know how to systematically build it into their programs and direct-service work. The frameworks exist. The need is clear. The gap is in the doing.

In this first session, Black Girls Smile gets into the practical work of embedding mental health into direct-service programming — without over-medicalizing your work or overwhelming your staff. Drawing from over a decade at the intersection of mental health, girlhood, and community-based practice, BGS will walk us through the tools, guardrails, and culturally grounded strategies that girl-serving organizations need to support participants holistically and intentionally.

You’ll leave with:

• Facilitation guardrails for navigating emotionally sensitive conversations in your programs
• Frameworks for responding to participant distress or disclosures with clarity and care
• Culturally grounded approaches to embedding wellness into your programming without losing your mission focus
• Increased clarity on what’s working — and what may need to shift — in how your organization currently shows up for participants